Amish families ask Supreme Court to hear New York school vaccine case
Schools can face fines of up to $2,000 per student for each day they allow a child to attend without meeting the state’s vaccination requirements, according to a brief backing the families.
Amish families and schools are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review New York’s repeal of its religious exemption from school vaccination requirements.
Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which filed a brief Nov. 2 backing the Amish petitioners in Miller v. McDonald, said in a press release that day that New York violated the First Amendment by repealing its religious exemption while keeping exemptions on medical grounds.
The Nov. 2 filing follows years of litigation over New York’s school vaccination law, which applies to students in public, private, and religious schools. As Zeale News previously reported, the state repealed its religious exemption in 2019 after a measles outbreak. The exemption had been in place for more than 50 years, according to the release.
After New York fined three Amish schools for failing to require proof of vaccination, the schools and several Amish representatives sued the state in June 2023. They argued that the law violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, and the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal. The appeals court again upheld the dismissal after the Supreme Court sent the case back for reconsideration.
Erin Elizabeth Mersino, vice president and chief of Supreme Court and appellate litigation at Advocates for Faith & Freedom, addressed what the repeal means for Amish parents in the Nov. 2 release.
“Parents should never be forced to abandon their faith simply to secure an education for their children,” she said.
New York’s response to the Amish petitioners’ request for Supreme Court review is due Dec. 2.
>> Federal judge bars Catholic school from using religious exemptions <<
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