ADF urges Biden admin to protect Americans' conscientious, religious convictions
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake regarding a formal comment ADF attorneys submitted Monday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urging it to protect all Americans’ freedom to live out their conscientious and religious convictions:
“Americans shouldn’t be forced to violate their ethical and religious beliefs. Yet, every year, countless medical practitioners needlessly suffer threats to their livelihoods and affronts to their faith just for asserting their rights to conscience and religious freedom. It’s critical the Biden administration protect every American’s right to promote the common good and protect unborn life. Patients are best served by medical practitioners who are free to act consistent with their oath to ‘do no harm.’ Doctors, nurses, and other medical providers should enjoy this same constitutional protection, free to live and work in a manner consistent with their faith.”
ADF attorneys submitted their comment to HHS’s Office for Civil Rights in response to the invitation to comment on the administration’s proposed rule, Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Julie Marie Blake
Julie Marie Blake serves as senior counsel for regulatory litigation at Alliance Defending Freedom. Over the last decade, she has been on the front lines of high-profile, precedent-setting cases challenging federal overreach in courts across the country. Blake served as deputy solicitor general for the state of Missouri from 2017 to 2020 and as assistant solicitor general for the state of West Virginia from 2013 to 2017. In these roles, she argued 26 federal and state appeals, including before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Before entering government service in 2013, Blake was a litigation associate at Baker Botts L.L.P., where she served as volunteer amicus counsel in several ADF cases, including Town of Greece v. Galloway. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School in 2009. She received her B.A. in Politics and Theology & Religious Studies phi beta kappa from the Catholic University of America in 2006. She is a 2007 Blackstone Fellow. Blake is admitted to practice in multiple states, the Supreme Court, and in many federal district and appellate courts.