The U.S. Supreme Court vacated a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that allowed New York to force Amish schoolchildren to be vaccinated. Not only do the vaccinations violate their religious beliefs, but the students also attend Amish-only schools in rural areas.
By vacating the decision, the Supreme Court ordered that the Second Circuit reconsider the case in light of its June ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which found the government violated the Free Exercise Clause by forcing students to engage in activities violating their faith.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the June ruling that a “government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.”
“The Amish community in New York wants to be left alone to live out their faith just like they have for 200 years,” Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel at First Liberty said in a statement on the case. “Who is the authority over our children? Their parents or government bureaucrats? Ultimately, this case will affect every American- their religious freedoms and the authority of every parent to raise their children according to their faith.”
The matter pertains to a 2019 law, signed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, which removed religious exemptions for vaccines. In 2022, the state brought “enforcement action against the Amish Appellants, imposing catastrophic penalties,” First Liberty explained, adding, “This case implicates the foundational First and Fourteenth Amendment question whether the State of New York can compel Amish schoolchildren living in remote Amish communities to receive vaccinations that conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs and Amish way of life.”
