More than a year and a half ago, Free Now Foundation began collaborating with Dr. William Lionberger—an experienced medical-legal expert with deep knowledge of federal disability law—to help educate the public about a little-known but powerful new legal tool: the ADA Waiver from Vaccination.
We launched outreach campaigns, and began raising the legal funds needed to file a federal lawsuit—one that will compel all schools to accept the ADA Waiver. Recently, organizations like Children’s Health Defense and Physicians for Informed Consent have taken interest in the waiver. In fact, a recent viral social media video cryptically credits PIC & CHD attorney Greg Glaser with offering “a new medical exemption”— Glaser is referring people to Dr. Lionberger’s ADA Waiver.
Free Now Foundation continues to support and expand this effort. The ADA Waiver has proven effective not just for schoolchildren, but in workplaces, universities, immigration cases, medical settings, and more. It’s a federal accommodation with teeth, grounded in the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it’s helping families push back against discriminatory mandates.
We believe that our forthcoming ADA Waiver lawsuit—spearheaded by Dr. Lionberger’s pioneering work—will help people reclaim sovereignty over their bodies and restore much-needed choice in a world increasingly defined by medical mandates.
Enjoy the fascinating story of how he birthed it, below.
A Doctor’s Awakening in a World of Mandates
Picture this: It’s 2020, and Dr. William Lionberger, a seasoned chiropractic physician and medical-legal expert, is attending a virtual San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting where public health officials and newly-minted pandemic “experts” discuss the rollout early COVID mandates.
The air is thick with urgency, but something feels off. “Information was being manipulated, obvious questions about mandates and science were not being asked—just total control without question,” Lionberger recalls. “Dissent was silenced, and the push was to get as many people jabbed as possible.”
For a man who’d spent decades bridging medicine and law, the red flags were unmistakable. This wasn’t about health. It was about control.
Licensed in both California and Arizona, Dr. Lionberger is a pioneer in California’s workers’ compensation system and was among the first Qualified Medical Examiners (QMEs) in the state. He is also a disability evaluator, industrial disability examiner, and founding member of America’s Frontline Doctors.
Guided by the question, “Where can I do the most good?” Dr. Lionberger has dedicated his career to helping doctors navigate complex disability cases and empowering patients caught in the crossfire between medicine and mandates. That path would lead him to create the ADA Waiver—an innovation that is now giving families across the country the tools to reclaim their medical freedom.
Dr. Lionberger has a broad scope of practice and experience. A licensed chiropractor in California and Arizona, he is a pioneer in California’s workers’ compensation system. He became one of the first Qualified Medical Examiners (QME). He is also a Disability evaluator, Industrial Disability Examiner and a founding member of America’s Frontline Doctors.
From Denied Medical Exemptions to Empowerment: The Birth of the ADA Waiver
They never planned for the ADA,” Dr. Lionberger says. “Deny someone ADA protections, and you’re discriminating. That’s a fight they can’t win.
Long before COVID gave rise to the medical freedom law specialty, Dr. Lionberger was a pioneer in the intersection of medicine and law. He had authored books on medical-legal narrative reporting and taught thousands of physicians how to write SOAP notes—Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan—that held up in court. His work empowered doctors to advocate effectively for their patients, especially when bureaucratic red tape threatened to undermine care.
But when the COVID narrative rolled out, he watched a troubling shift unfold.
Mandates and guidelines began rolling out that, in his words, were “based in everything but science—masking, the infamous six-foot rule, and the idea that you could safely go to big-box stores but not your neighborhood shop.”
In response, he began writing medical exemptions for COVID shots—for schoolchildren, employees, immigrants, even for firefighter groups like those in Los Angeles. Initially, these exemptions were respected. But it didn’t take long for Big Pharma interests and state medical boards to push back. Doctors offering these protections found themselves under investigation, threatened with license revocation, or quietly paid off to stop writing them.
When California launched CAIR-ME, California’s centralized database for medical exemptions in school and childcare, it became the State’s battering ram to deny all exemptions submitted into the mandatory system. Promoted as a streamlined process, it is actually a surveillance tool—tracking families, targeting doctors, and effectively ending any legitimate pathway to exemption. “It wasn’t designed to protect patients,” Lionberger says. “It was designed to shut the door.”
Families were left stranded. “Schools, employers, and agencies all started saying, ‘If it’s not CAIR-ME, it doesn’t count.’” The frustration in his voice is unmistakable. “Exemptions were now flimsy and ignored.”
The question was whether or not the pre-cursor to the ADA Waiver – state medical exemptions — working initially for COVID shots— would also work for children vulnerable to injury from any vaccine.
That’s when he pivoted—not just to a stronger framework rooted in the ADA, but to one that applied to all vaccinations.
“I saw how the vaccine-injured and those abandoned by their doctors had no voice to fight with,” he recalls. “Especially when medical boards moved against the very doctors trying to protect [this patient population]. Many lost their licenses in the process.”
Digging deeper into legal protections, Dr. Lionberger turned to the Americans with Disabilities Act—specifically, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, a federal law with serious teeth. Unlike flimsy state exemptions, the ADA was expansive, powerful, and enforceable.
It broadened the definition of disability to include immune dysfunction, neurological issues, allergies, reproductive concerns—even disruptions to normal cell growth. Critically, it also expanded the pool of qualified providers, allowing DCs, DOs, PAs, optometrists, and others—not just MDs—to issue ADA documentation.
For Dr. Lionberger, this wasn’t just a workaround. It was a breakthrough.
“After much deliberation with our legal partners,” he says, “In 2022, we transitioned all our patients to the ADA platform at once. The shift was immediately met with success across the country.”
“In essence, we were ahead of the curve. The ADA reigned supreme. Most people understood its power.” But as time went on, he notes, “state boards and health agencies doubled down—working even harder to erode personal and parental vaccine choice. That’s only made ADA protections more essential.”
“Once you invoke your rights under the ADA,” he explains, “no school, no employer, no agency can take them away.” Unlike exemptions, which could be dismissed or denied at the state level, ADA waivers are grounded in federal anti-discrimination law. Denying one at work, for example, could result in a $50,000 fine—and open the door to a federal lawsuit.
“We don’t call it an exemption,” he emphasizes. “It’s an ADA Waiver. Once granted, the game is over. If they deny it, they’ve stepped into discrimination. And that is a fight they can’t win.”
A Nationwide Movement Takes Root
We’ve helped countless families keep their kids safe from compulsory shots and continue attending school.”, in Ca. and all over the country.
Through his nonprofit, Frontline Health Advocates (FHA), Dr. Lionberger has created a network of MDs, DOs, PAs, and nurses trained in medicine and the law. Together, they prepare airtight ADA files vetted by disabled rights attorneys, helping families fight medical discrimination.
“We’re the only organization in the country that knows how to do this,” he says proudly. From its scrappy beginnings, FHA has grown into a powerhouse, supporting everyone from California parents to international truckers and even a sheikh in Dubai needing documentation to travel freely during the Covid shutdowns.
FHA’s success rate is staggering—“in the high 90s,” with exceptions in CA., NY, and CT as the worst offenders of ADA Civil Rights, Dr. Lionberger notes. By folding ADA language into every report, they’ve transformed formerly fragile exemptions into enforceable rights. The framework works because federal protections speak a language regulators can’t ignore, because the ADA is federal which trumps state exemption laws.
Partnering for Justice: Free Now Foundation’s Lawsuit
Dr. Lionberger’s expertise has found a powerful ally in Free Now Foundation. Together, we are spearheading a ground-breaking ADA-based lawsuit against California’s mandates. Working alongside Board Chair Alix Mayer, Free Now Foundation Board Member, Attorney Jessica Barsotti and a top disability specialist legal team, Dr. Lionberger is helping shape arguments that could set a precedent for medical freedom nationwide. “It’s divinely driven,” he reflects. “We were put here, at this moment, with the expertise to make this happen.”
While lawsuits take time, Dr. Lionberger emphasizes that families don’t have to wait. “We have individual families who have been discriminated against, already suing under the ADA, and Free Now’s lawsuit aims to set federal precedent to compel all schools to accept the ADA Waiver,” he says. “Our goal is to create case law in states that stops discrimination against families and doctors once and for all.”
Know Your Rights: The Power of the ADA
People deserve the right to choose. The ADA makes that possible.
The ADA’s reach is broader than most realize. A disability isn’t just a visible condition—it’s any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities, like breathing, learning, or even immune function. The 2008 Amendments lowered the threshold, ensuring protections for our most vulnerable class. “It’s about one word: discrimination,” Dr. Lionberger says. “The ADA stops it in its tracks.”
“Reasonable accommodation under the ADA applies anywhere vaccines are mandated,” he explains. “That includes workplaces, schools, childcare centers, clinical programs, family daycare homes, travel, and sports. These waivers must be honored—without bias or prejudice—under federal law.”
For families facing vaccine mandates or medical coercion, the ADA Waiver is a lifeline. It’s not just a piece of paper—it’s a federal shield, ensuring access, rights, and dignity for those with both visible and invisible impairments.
Call to Action
Learn more about your rights under the ADA and how to access an ADA Waiver through Frontline Health Advocates
Please support our legal work to compel all schools to accept the federal waiver at Free Now Foundation. We need ongoing funding for the long slog through the legal system.
Together, we will end discriminatory mandates and restore choice for all.
DONATEAria Morgan is a writer and advocate dedicated to civil liberties, medical freedom, and free speech. As Director of Content at Free Now Foundation (2024–2026) and former Managing Editor of Children’s Health Defense–CA (2021–2024), she helped shape investigative storytelling efforts advancing informed consent and individual rights.
Aria bridges more than 30 years of embodied wellness practice and over 25 years of teaching with civic engagement. Her wellness work lives at DailyDowndog.com
What disability are those seeking vaccine exemption using? This sounds like fraud. It is illegal to claim ADA if you don’t actually have a disability. People tried that with masks in 2020/2021 and were charged with fraud. I’m all for a work around Californias BS exemption process but I’m not sure about this….
Hi Jennifer, We are working with Frontline Health Advocates and using the 2008 ADA Amendments Act criteria to help folks with disabilities. No fraud, whatsoever.
“The ADA’s reach is broader than most realize. A disability isn’t just a visible condition—it’s any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities, like breathing, learning, or even immune function. The 2008 Amendments lowered the threshold, ensuring protections for our most vulnerable class.”
So I mentally cannot get a vaccine so I’m exempt under ADA? Something isn’t adding up. The ADA was made for actual disabilities – seen and unseen. My unvaccinated children do not have a disability that requires them to not receive vaccines other then my parental rights and choices, and I feel it would be fraud to say they do. And any doctor giving people a “history” of disability is committing fraud as well. This is not how we win.
Hi Jennifer,
The ADA provides protections to someone with a disability. Your comments feel like they are not directed towards these protections, but rather feels as if you are alleging someone (not sure who) is doing something dishonest. If someone is making up things that are untrue, and lying about a medical condition, of course we do not condone that behavior, but that is quite different from a disability as covered under the protections offered by the ADA.
Disability status is private information. Someone’s disability status — especially if it is invisible, or not apparent to the average person — is protected. It’s not acceptable to speculate about what individual requests for an accommodation (under the ADA) are based on. The ADA provides broad protections for all kinds of disabilities that affect every one of the bodily systems— everything from mental/behavioral/neurological disabilities to immune system dysfunctions, cardiac dysfunction, hepatic dysfunction, renal dysfunction, etc., all the way to dysfunction/disability that affects cell growth.
Free Now Foundation would not be going forward with a legal challenge under ADA if we did not believe there was a true violation of the federal law happening.
We understand your sentiment and concern that not everyone should have to have a disability in order to opt out of vaccines. We agree with you. This is one of many legal efforts we are pursuing to reclaim our legitimate rights around vaccination.
Jennifer, the ADA Waiver is only for those who qualify for a disability under the ADA.
If there were fraud, we would not be doing this case to compel all schools to accept the ADA Waiver for vulnerable children who meet this standard, as evaluated by trained MDs and supported by legal expertise from ADA-specialist attorneys.
The point of this case is to show that state law cannot supersede federal disability law, and to help many vulnerable children get protection they cannot get in California due to Newsom’s de facto vaccine mandate and state database system.
Great work and major step forward but where are the rock solid exemtptions for the rest of our citizens who do not have disabilities?
Thank you, We are working on it.
Our due process lawsuit aims to end mandates entirely. We have carefully selected our cases to be what we feel is the best way forward. If we see other meritorious avenues to do other full-on attacks or chip away at mandates, we will add new cases. We will add more cases to restore parental rights around vaccination and all mandated medicine as funding allows.
Thank you for this excellent work. I hope this will come as a relief and/or hope to many parents with disabled children and persons with disabilities.