The U.S. Supreme Court today reversed a lower court decision against a group of Amish parents and school leaders who challenged the state of New York’s vaccine mandates for schools, ruling that the appeals court must reconsider the case.
Today’s ruling is a win for health and religious freedom advocates — one that could have implications for other states that don’t allow religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates, attorneys said.
Attorney Sujata Gibson told The Defender today’s Supreme Court decision is “checkmate” for states that refuse to accept religious exemptions. “It means we’re almost certainly getting the religious exemption back, not only in New York, but across the country,” Gibson said.
Today’s decision stems from a lawsuit filed on June 2, 2023, against the New York State Department of Health and New York State Education Department, alleging they violated the U.S. Constitution by preventing the plaintiffs from exercising their religion.
Attorney Aaron Siri filed the suit on June 2, 2023, seeking injunctive relief.
On July 31, lawyers, including Siri, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, Miller v. McDonald, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit dismissed the suit in March.
Not only did the Supreme Court today announce that it would hear the case — which is rare, Gibson said — but it handed down its decision on the spot via a “summary deposition” in which it vacated the 2nd Circuit’s judgment.
“The case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for further consideration in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor,” the summary deposition stated.
“This is huge,” Gibson said, because Mahmoud v. Taylor — a Supreme Court decision released in June — negated the 2nd Circuit’s legal arguments for denying the Miller plaintiffs the right to a religious exemption.
“All of the reasons, basically, that the 2nd Circuit cited to say they weren’t giving relief were overturned in Mahmud v. Taylor,” Gibson explained.
“I don’t see any way that the 2nd Circuit could uphold its dismissal,” in light of the Supreme Court’s instructions, she said. “By vacating the dismissal, the Supreme Court signaled that Mahmoud applies to vaccine cases. Mahmoud provides incredibly broad protection to parental religious rights infringed by school policies.”
The 2nd Circuit will likely have to issue a decision that restores religious exemptions in New York, Gibson said.
Today’s Supreme Court decision will also likely affect other states that deny religious exemptions, said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg. She told The Defender:
“While the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. McDonald directly relates to the religious exemption to vaccine mandates in New York state, it will have broader implications in other states that have stripped citizens of religious exemptions.
“As Supreme Court precedent, Mahmoud v. Taylor applies in all those states, not only New York, and should be considered by any court taking up these questions.”
Supreme Court paves way for constitutional protection of religious exemptions
Gibson broke down how and why the Supreme Court’s decision dramatically changes the legal landscape for religious exemptions to school-based vaccine mandates. She said:
“For decades, the problem with religious protection has been a case called Smith, where the Supreme Court said that you don’t actually get First Amendment protection for the exercise of religion until you can prove that the law that’s burdening your religion is either not neutral or not generally applicable.”
Since vaccine mandates apply to everyone and aren’t issued against a specific religion, it’s been challenging for those seeking religious exemptions to obtain protection. Lawyers have had to argue that there are certain exceptions to that rule, Gibson said.
One exception that the Supreme Court noted in its Smith decision involved Wisconsin v. Yoder, in which Amish families didn’t send their kids to high school because it violated their religious beliefs. “Even though the high school requirement is also neutral and generally applicable, the parents were still able to get strict scrutiny of that and get constitutional protection,” Gibson said.
Siri cited the Wisconsin v. Yoder case as justification for the 2nd Circuit to grant the New York Amish parents and school leaders relief from the state’s vaccine mandate for school entry.
The 2nd Circuit disagreed, arguing that the Yoder exception applied only to the exact situation detailed in that case.
However, this summer, the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmud v. Taylor that the Yoder exception applies more broadly.
For instance, the Mahmud v. Taylor case was about how public schools must offer opt-outs for parents who object to LGBTQ-themed elementary school books due to their religious beliefs.
The Yoder exception “basically applies any time parents have a religious objection to a school policy, even if that school policy is neutral and generally applicable,” she said.
That means the Yoder case can be used as a potent legal argument in vaccination contexts. “That’s what the Supreme Court did today by vacating (nullifying) the 2nd Circuit’s decision in Miller and ruling that the 2nd Circuit must redo its decision in light of Mahmud v. Taylor,” Gibson said.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes amid a litany of lawsuits seeking to restore religious exemption rights. Gibson said those lawsuits will continue “just to make sure” the law is applied correctly.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week that it is investigating a complaint that a Midwestern school disregarded a valid religious exemption and failed to obtain parental consent when vaccinating a student.
“Today, we are putting pediatric medical professionals on notice: you cannot sideline parents,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “When providers ignore parental consent, violate exemptions to vaccine mandates, or keep parents in the dark about their children’s care, we will act decisively. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect families and restore accountability.”
HHS did not disclose the name of the school under investigation or the student who was vaccinated.
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