In a ruling that completely stunned Dr. Stephen Skoly and his attorneys, Federal Court Judge, Mary McElroy, issued a “bench ruling” granting the motion by the attorneys for the state to dismiss Skoly’s vaccine mandate lawsuit on the basis that it was moot.

The amount of medical and public corruption evidence compiled against the original claims about the vaccine and in support of Skoly’s position has been overwhelming, since the original lawsuit was filed in February of 2022 against the State of Rhode Island, the RI Department of Health, Governor Dan McKee and interim health director James McDonald.

However, Judge McElroy, in issuing her ruling, refused to allow discovery or hearings to consider this ample evidence, which Skoly and his team were confident would win the day … if they could only get their day in court.

“I feel like I just got hit with a 96 mph fastball,” commented Skoly to The Current. “If my lawyers are on board, I am of the mind to appeal.”

Skoly’s legal team now has 20 days to decide if they will indeed appeal McElroy’s decision. If they do appeal, it will be a strong signal that attorneys will try to take the case all the way to the US Supreme Court, if necessary.

With a bench ruling, there is no requirement for a written opinion to be issued, so there is no immediate official record of how the judge defended her surprise decision, although a transcript of Thursday’s proceedings should be available in the coming weeks.

According to Skoly’s best recollection when speaking with The Current at length last evening, at those proceedings, one of the state attorneys cavalierly and cuttingly stated, to the effect, that Dr. Skoly “proudly” defied the healthcare worker vaccine mandate issued by the RI Department of Health, clearly implying that he was deserving of the 6-month shuttering of his oral and maxillofacial surgical practice. Skoly was the only medical practitioner shut down by RIDOH.

Perhaps most alarming was a purported statement by Judge McElroy that the government’s statutory emergency powers superseded Skoly’s Constitutional rights. However, Robert Flanders, former Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, told The Current last year that “there is no pandemic exception to the US Constitution.”

Skoly filed his lawsuit on the basis that he had a relatively rare medical condition that his doctors feared might be exacerbated by the Covid-19 vaccine. As Chairman of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, Skoly also contended in his complaint that his constitutional rights had been infringed upon.

What’s next for Dr. Skoly? He teased, “This is either the end of the legal line for me … or it’s the beginning of something much much bigger.” Also, Having openly considered throwing his hat in the ring for the 2023 special election to fill the open US House of Representative seat in RI’s 1st Congressional district vacated by David Cicilline, the surgeon said he will actively consider a run against Seth Magaziner in 2024 for RI’s 2nd Congressional district. “There’s a lot that needs to be done to straighten-out our country,” concluded the good doctor.