Florida Lawmaker Urges Trump to Protect Religious Exemptions

A Florida member of Congress is calling on President Donald Trump to issue an executive order protecting Americans’ right to obtain a religious exemption to vaccination.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A Florida member of Congress is calling on President Donald Trump to issue an executive order protecting Americans’ right to obtain a religious exemption to vaccination.

In a letter to Trump, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) asked the administration to “take all available steps, up to and including issuing an executive order, to ensure the appropriate protection of individuals’ civil liberties and religious freedom with respect to all vaccines.”

“While the Administration has taken important steps to address COVID-19 vaccine mandates, families across the country still face additional vaccine requirements that fail to respect sincerely held religious beliefs,” Steube said in a press release.

Steube’s letter referenced an executive order Trump issued last year, which bars federal funding for educational institutions that enact COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

While Trump’s order “has certainly provided much-needed relief to families, they are still subjected to other vaccine requirements that conflict with their sincerely held beliefs,” he wrote.

“Vaccine mandate laws that fail to accommodate religious beliefs represent a clear and coercive intrusion on this freedom, compelling individuals and families to act in direct contradiction to their faith.”

Steube also hinted at further congressional action related to religious exemptions, writing that he is working “to take additional action” on religious liberty.

Michael Kane, director of advocacy for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), welcomed Steube’s “decisive action to protect religious liberty for all.”

“Steube is an elected official with integrity and guts, and I can hardly thank him enough for his bold leadership protecting religious and medical freedom for all in our nation,” Kane said.

Steube’s letter comes as the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Religious Liberty Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing on religious liberty in healthcare and social services on March 16. The commission was established last year as a result of another executive order Trump issued.

Religious exemptions under threat nationwide

According to Steube’s letter, current vaccination requirements in many jurisdictions across the U.S. “deny students access based on vaccination status.”

“Families are placed in an untenable position; they must either violate their sincerely held religious beliefs or risk facing serious legal consequences. Such policies create a coercive dynamic that pressures families to abandon their religious convictions to avoid state-imposed penalties.”

California, Connecticut, Maine and New York don’t allow religious exemptions.

Religious exemptions are also facing challenges in other states, including West Virginia, where state education authorities and others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are challenging Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s 2025 executive order recognizing religious exemptions for school attendance.

Massachusetts is debating a law that would eliminate religious exemptions there.

Last month, a coalition of federal lawmakers led by Steube urged the DOJ to investigate the states whose laws prohibit religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates.

In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the lawmakers warned that vaccine mandate laws in these states violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.

The lawmakers also asked the DOJ to intervene in two New York lawsuits in which CHD is a plaintiff or is funding the case. Those include a lawsuit against New York, filed in December 2025, in a bid to restore religious exemptions in that state.

Religious exemptions also face threats at the national level.

In July 2025, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) called for an end to religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions for children attending daycare and school in the U.S., calling such exemptions “problematic.”

The AAP is the largest pediatric trade group in the U.S., with 67,000 members. The organization maintains financial relationships with several vaccine manufacturers.

Americans support religious exemptions, polls show

A recent nationwide poll shows that a growing number of Americans support protecting religious liberties.

According to Becket’s 2025 Religious Freedom Index, 57% of Americans polled agree that Americans should be free to express their faith in public spaces, including schools — a five-percentage point increase from 2020.

The same poll found that 73% of Americans support the parental right to opt their children out of public schools’ curriculum, representing a 10-percentage point rise compared to 2020.

“One of our most interesting findings this year was that religious freedom unifies Americans,” said Ryan Colby, director of communications for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“While Americans may disagree on many important issues, the data shows that Americans can set aside their differences and rally around America’s first freedom,” Colby said.

According to Colby, one of the notable outcomes of this year’s survey was that “a plurality of Americans (49%) would support a lawsuit by an individual who lost their job after being denied a religious accommodation to a vaccine requirement. By contrast, less than a third (32%) side with the employer.”

Colby was referring to a 2022 lawsuit filed by Nick Rolovich, former football coach for Washington State University, who sued the institution after he was denied a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and subsequently fired.

In 2025, a federal court ruled against Rolovich. An appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Colby said previous polls have shown that a majority of Americans support religious exemptions.

“In 2021, the Index, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, found that a plurality of Americans supported religious vaccine exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine if other exemptions were allowed,” Colby said.

Last month, a poll commissioned by the Health Freedom Defense Fund and the Brownstone Institute and conducted by Zogby Strategies found that 54.5% of respondents agreed that parents should be able to opt children out of school vaccine mandates.

According to a 2024 nationwide poll commissioned by CHD and conducted by Zogby Strategies, 51% of respondents opposed government vaccine mandates, while 40% favored mandates.

Related articles in The Defender

• Breaking: Congress Members Urge DOJ to Investigate 4 States That Prohibit Religious Exemptions

• Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Sues New York in Bid to Restore Religious Exemptions

• West Virginia Supreme Court to Review Religious Exemptions Case

• American Academy of Pediatrics Wants to Shut Down Religious Vaccine Exemptions

• Massachusetts Proposes Laws to Remove Religious Exemptions, Parental Consent for Vaccines

• Poll: More Than Half of Americans Want Right to Sue Vaccine Makers for Injuries