Supreme Court revives Amish challenge to New York student vaccination requirement

The U.S. Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit filed by a group of Amish parents against a New York state law that removes a religious exemption to school immunizations.

In an orders list released Monday, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling against the parents and other plaintiffs in the case of Joseph Miller et al. v. James McDonald et al.

The case was sent back to the lower court for consideration in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court decision from June in which the high court ruled 6-3 that parents can opt their children out of a Maryland school district's LGBT-themed curriculum due to religious objections.

In June 2019, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill removing religious exemptions for vaccines in schoolchildren. Under the law, children cannot attend school or daycare without certification from a healthcare provider that the child has received all mandated vaccinations. 

The law was passed amid a Measles outbreak that impacted several states and still allowed for medical exemptions.

 "The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe," Cuomo said shortly after signing the bill. "While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health. And by signing this measure into law, we will help prevent further transmissions and stop this outbreak right in its tracks."

The law was the subject of multiple legal challenges, including one filed in 2023 by the parents of two Amish schoolchildren, three Amish schools and a representative of all Amish schools in New York.

In March, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against the plaintiffs, affirming a district court decision against the Amish parents.

"Plaintiffs concede that New York Public Health Law § 2164 satisfies rational basis review — immunization programs reduce disease," read the per curiam panel opinion.

"The examples included in the record of measles, pertussis, tetanus, and/or polio recently spreading in certain Amish communities across the nation and in New York demonstrate that Amish isolation does not protect their communities from disease."  

In 2022, the Supreme Court released an order declining to hear arguments in the case of F.F., as parent of Y.F. v. New York, which involved a different challenge to the vaccination law, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of the law to stand.