August 18, 2026
The Honorable James Uthmeier
Attorney General, State of Florida
PL-01, The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
Dear Attorney General Uthmeier:
As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am writing in strong support of Florida’s Catholic bishops who object to your demand that they adopt religious exemptions to vaccine mandates. If they do not, you say they risk losing eligibility for the state’s school voucher program.
Your position smacks of overreach and is indeed a classic example of state encroachment on religion. Your motives may be benign, but if the bishops were to accede to your demand, they would in effect render themselves impotent to any future impositions on their autonomy by a less-friendly attorney general.
Michael B. Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to you on August 7 maintaining that “any insinuation that a government official can dictate to the Catholic Church (or any religion) how to apply her tenets and dogma, violates well-established constitutional religious freedom rights. It is beyond cavil that the bishops, not the state, decide how to interpret and apply Catholic principles and theology.”
He is entirely right. The state must always respect legitimate boundaries in its dealing with religious bodies, lest it place in jeopardy their First Amendment right to religious liberty. Moreover, threats to exclude them from public policy programs that are available to everyone else are discriminatory and indeed unconstitutional.
I respectfully ask that you drop this issue and allow the leaders of the Catholic Church in Florida to make these kinds of decisions.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President
cc: Florida Bishops
Michael B. Sheedy
