Florida Violates More Than Religious Freedom

Ron DeSantis, whose Covid-era anti-lockdown policies have morphed into an anti-vaccination agenda, has received pushback from an unexpected source and for an unexpected reason: Catholic schools oppose being forced to grant religious exemptions for their vaccination requirements.

Beth Mole of Ars Technica does a good job of covering the back-and forth, and notes the irony that this measure is infringing on religious freedom in this case:

The bishops' letter highlights a fallacy often used by anti-vaccine advocates: that undermining vaccines and dismantling vaccination requirements upholds religious freedom, when in fact it can be an attack on that freedom. Just on Monday, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed weakening the wording of federal vaccine recommendations "in favor of individual autonomy and religious freedom." Yet, no major religion in the world forbids vaccinations, and most encourage and embrace them as a common good, like the Catholic bishops. [bold added]

This is true, but it the religious focus is dangerous because religious freedom is a subset of intellectual freedom, and is limited in the same way: One can profess whatever one wants, but one is not free to violate the rights of others. For example, if your religion calls on you to execute heretics, you do not have the right to do so.

The real problem with the religious exemption is as I have stated before (regarding DeSantis's mandate that cruise ships accept passengers without proof of vaccination during a pandemic): It violates one's property rights and one's right to contract to force someone to do business with someone one does not want to do buisness with.

A Catholic school -- or any private school (and all schools should be private) -- is a business. The owner (here, the Catholic Church) has the right to determine how to use the premises -- including keeping unvaccinated people out -- and the right to determine whom it will do business with -- including refusing to accept customers (students) for any reason whatsoever (such as the reasonable belief that their unvaccinated status could turn their business into a pesthouse).

-- CAV