The justices directed the appeals court to reconsider its ruling in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court ruling in June.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 8 vacated a ruling upholding New York’s ban on religious exemptions to its school vaccine mandate and ordered a lower court to review its stance on the ban. The case is known as Miller v. McDonald.
Justices vacated the March decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had found the legislation banning religious exemptions to vaccination requirements was “neutral on its face” and did not “target or affirmatively prohibit religious practices.”
The justices directed the appeals court to reconsider its ruling in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court ruling in June that sided with parents who wanted the ability to opt their children out of interacting with books in school that promote lesbian, gay, and similar lifestyles. Justices did not say how the appeals court should ultimately rule after reviewing Mahmoud v. Taylor.
In Mahmoud, a majority of justices concluded that a Maryland county board of education violated the religious rights of the parents by introducing the books into the county’s curriculum and later forbidding parents from removing their children from classrooms when the stories were read.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, pointed to a previous Supreme Court ruling against a Wisconsin law that prohibited Amish parents from withdrawing their children from public schools after eighth grade.
“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,” Alito said.
which removed the ability of parents to seek and receive religious exemptions to the vaccines required for school attendance. The only exemptions currently allowed in New York are on medical grounds and require a doctor’s certification.
The Amish litigants said in their lawsuit that New York’s repeal of religious exemptions violated their constitutional rights, including their right under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
