Health Care Right of Conscience Act

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Illinois Department of Corrections v. Alvin Boone

Case No.: 23-8012

Officials: Scudder, St. Eve, and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Health Care Right of Conscience Act

The underlying lawsuit relates to COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by several Illinois state agencies. In October 2021, the plaintiffs, who work for these agencies, sued their employers and Governor J.B. Pritzker in Illinois state court, asserting the vaccine mandates were unlawful. The defendants then removed the case to federal court. In response to similar lawsuits, Illinois passed Public Act 102-667 on November 8, 2021.

This is an interlocutory appeal. Public Act 102-667, which added a provision to the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act which purported to be a “declaration of existing law” that “shall not be construed as a new enactment.” In reviewing a challenge to this new provision, the district court took the legislature at its word, explained that the provision “was merely a clarification of existing law” that affected nobody’s rights or obligations, and thus rejected the plaintiffs’ requests to enjoin the added provision from being enforced. But the district court then allowed the challenge to go forward to determine whether the new provision somehow harmed the plaintiffs in a way that would entitle them to some form of legal relief.

The district court’s primary conclusion about Public Act 102-667—that it changed nothing in Illinois law—requires dismissing the plaintiffs’ challenge for lack of Article III standing. The Seventh Circuit therefore accepts the interlocutory appeal as presented and remands with instructions to dismiss the case.

Reversed and Remanded.

Decided 06/21/23

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