Early last month, the U.S. Supreme Court first agreed to hear and then promptly remanded to the Appellate Court that Court’s earlier decision in Miller v. McDonald. In Miller, the Second Circuit upheld New York State’s elimination of religious exemptions to school vaccination requirements in light of a measles outbreak. The Plaintiffs are Amish parents arguing that the state now forces families to violate their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court remanded the case with instructions to the Appellate Court to reconsider its decision in light of the Supreme Court’s prior decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor that we previously discussed here.
New York State eliminated its religious exemption to school vaccination requirements in 2019, leaving only medical exemptions and making vaccination mandatory for all students who attend school. The legislature took this action to address a severe measles outbreak. The Amish petitioners argue that this change forces them to violate their faith because their religious tradition “rejects vaccination as inconsistent with God’s will,” and the state now provides “no avenue whatsoever for religious accommodation.”
In their reply brief, they emphasized that the law is not neutral or generally applicable because New York still allows secular medical exemptions while categorically denying religious ones. They also argue that the Second Circuit applied the wrong legal test under Smith, and that under Wisconsin v. Yoder and the Supreme Court’s recent Mahmoud decision, the state’s refusal to accommodate sincere religious objections “substantially burdens the parents’ ability to raise their children in their faith.” The petitioners ask the Court to grant review, resolve the conflict over how Smith applies when secular exemptions exist, or send the case back for reconsideration under the stricter standard articulated in Mahmoud, which is in fact what the Supreme Court did. The case is not final. The Second Circuit must now address Mahmoud and issue a ruling which, in turn, is appealable to the Supreme Court.
Unlike New York State, Illinois retains its statutory religious exemption for religious reasons. (See IDPH Form Certificate of Religious Exemption Form.) Nonetheless, the Supreme Court’s decision Miller emphasizes the breadth of its Mahmoud decision and its ongoing impact on Illinois school districts.
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