A New Mexico lawyer is standing up against a vaccine mandate from New Mexico State University, part of an ongoing battle against what he refers to as the “scamdemic.”
NMSU recently imposed a new COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all students, including high school students attending dual credit classes.
“New Mexico Stands Up! is prepared to pursue legal action against New Mexico State University if it continues to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for students,” Jonathan Diener said in a press release. “NMSU’s illegal mandate exposes students to compulsory risks in order to attend college and, in so doing, directly violates federal and state law.”
This new requirement comes at a time when similar mandates are being eliminated at many universities around the country. Universities in Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, Tennessee and Hawaii have ended their mandates.
In addition to universities, vaccine mandates have been canceled by many companies and in many municipalities after enforcement for federal workers has been on-hold for months due to multiple lawsuits. Even so, NMSU is now choosing to impose a vaccine mandate on students.
On June 13, New Mexico Stands Up sent a cease-and-desist notice to NMSU demanding an end to the mandate.
In an April 28 letter sent to Alexa Doig, director of the New Mexico State University School of Nursing, Diener spoke on behalf of Savannah Blevins, who had applied to attend nursing school at NMSU.
“It is my understanding that you not only have a vaccine mandate for nursing students, but also do not provide religious exemptions for these mandates. I am writing to urge you to accept a religious exemption request from Ms. Blevins for vaccines,” he wrote. “In my opinion, which is based on substantial legal and medical research, to not afford her the right to seek a religious exemption is violative of Ms. Blevins rights under the New Mexico Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the New Mexico Human Rights Act, Title VII of the United States Code and both New Mexico's and the federal constitutions.”
Blevins’ religious beliefs do not permit her to be vaccinated, Diener explained, and her mother has applied for and obtained religious exemptions for vaccination of all kinds throughout her childhood.
Blevins had obtained an exemption from New Mexico State University but the nursing school chose not to honor that exemption.
“Your policy of not allowing religious exemptions has a very substantial impact on Ms. Blevins,” he wrote. “Ms. Blevins currently works at a hospital in Alamagordo, the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, where they allow her to work unvaccinated. While I believe your policy is misguided given the law and information provided below, it would seem that in Ms. Blevins’ circumstances, an exception could and should be made.”
No decision has been made yet, Diener said.
“The nursing school has not said she is admitted but has passed her exemption request on to the university to decide on, which has not happened yet,” he told New Mexico Sun.
The New Mexico State Nursing School is located in Las Cruces. Their mission is to promote health and improve the quality of life of the people of New Mexico through nursing education, research, practice and public service, recognizing the state’s multicultural heritage and dynamic border environment.
Diener said to him, this is a matter of principle.
“I don’t really know the specifics,” he said. “I just know that they told her, ‘We don’t consider a religious exemption.’ So I wasn’t really concerned so much with the nature or the way she explained it or her personal religious views about it. I was concerned that the university was saying, ‘Well, we won’t even consider your request for them.’
“The school should not be allowed to do this,” he told New Mexico Sun. “I believe that all vaccine mandates are violations of people’s right to determine their own bodies, and what they do with their own body, as far as medically. That’s an individual choice. It should never be mandated by anybody.”
In his letter, Diener also made the case that the COVID vaccine can be dangerous to some people.
“As of March 18, 2022, in the United States there were 1,195,396 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 26,059 deaths, 45,615 permanent disabilities and 211,584 serious injuries,” the letter states. “And this is just what has been reported. It is well recognized by both the CDC and a study done with Harvard participating that the data of the CDC represents only those injuries that are reported which are only a fraction of the actual injuries. The Harvard affiliated study believed that they only represented 1 to 10 percent of the actual injuries.”
Diener elaborated on this subject during his interview with the New Mexico Sun.
“The people that are vaccinated, as well as people that are unvaccinated, can get COVID-19 and transmit it in very much exactly the same way as somebody that hasn’t been vaccinated. I mean, the science is there. The studies have been done,” he said.
“The vaccinated are getting COVID at almost the same rate as the unvaccinated, and they’re actually more likely to spread COVID-19 once they have it, because if their symptoms are reduced, they don’t know they have it,” Diener said. “And that was the whole idea of this vaccine, was to reduce symptoms, not that nobody would get infected that took it. So, if it reduces symptoms, but somebody still has it, they're going to spread it. So it’s almost a greater risk, actually, for the vaccinated to be going to school than it is for the unvaccinated, because the unvaccinated, they don’t have a symptom-suppression drug in them like the vaccinated. And so the symptoms will show up and they won’t go to school anyway. There’s a whole bunch of science that is being ignored by most everybody.”
Diener, whose practice is based in Silver City, has been a lawyer for 37 years. He said he had not focused on this area of the law previously, and was a general practitioner who didn’t see the limelight or to take on controversial issues.
But that changed in 2020.
“I have been fighting what I call COVID fascism since the beginning. I represented a restaurant that was trouble for not shutting down. I sued Gov. (Michelle Lujan) Grisham and her health agency secretary. I’ve sued Dona Ana County for firing two prison workers for not being vaccinated.”
A judge threw out the case involving the corrections workers, Diener said, but one of his clients soon landed a job at double his previous pay.
Diener said he worked for Blevins on a reduced rate.
“She did pay something,” he said. “You know, I don’t charge the same for somebody in a case like this as I would for somebody who came in and hired me to do like, a real estate matter or something.”
He said he has been “motivated to take on these issues” since COVID-19 became a national and global issue. Diener said he doesn’t expect to get more fame or case because of this case.
“No. I think my name as a person fighting COVID fascism has been around for a couple of years,” he said. “It’s nothing new.”
On his website, Diener said not all cases have to be resolved in a courtroom.
“One of my specialties is writing. I have done many briefs in appellate cases,” he said. “I have found that sometimes a well-written letter can resolve a legal problem without a lawsuit.”
Diener is far from a typical lawyer. He lives in a solar-powered adobe home that he designed and built in the mountains outside of Mule Creek, where he relaxes by playing guitar and singing, hiking, doing organic gardening and building.