Tuscumbia Attorney Brent Woodall
The Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”) recently congratulated local attorney W. Brent Woodall in its Allied Attorney Success Newsletter (“newsletter”). The ADF is a national conservative non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith. Its newsletter recognized activity that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2018. The ADF congratulated Mr. Woodall for work he did on behalf of an optometry student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (“UAB”). The optometry student had a sincerely held religious belief against taking certain vaccinations and was told by UAB that, due to this belief, she would not be allowed to continue her studies. Woodall volunteered to handle her case and discovered that, in Alabama, a student who is not over the age of 21 may opt out of a vaccination requirement based on sincerely held religious beliefs; that option is inapplicable to students over the age of 21. Mr. Woodall determined that this law clearly constituted a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and wrote UAB to inform them of this violation. Based on his letter, UAB changed its position and allowed the student to continue her studies.
“Students who have sincerely held religious beliefs should not be treated as second-class citizens,” Woodall stated. “Those students who feel that their rights are being violated should not simply comply with what may be unconstitutional demands, they should contact an attorney and assert their rights if doing so is legally proper based on the facts of their case.” Mr. Woodall added that he would be happy to speak to any civic or church group about the topic of religious rights.
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