New York's measles vaccination law does not violate the Free Exercise Clause

Apart from the COVID-19 issue, the other vaccine challenge these days involves the measles. The measles issue arise first, in 2019, when New York eliminated the religious exception to the policy that schoolchildren must take the measles vaccine. Litigation has been brewing ever since. This case upholds the state-wide elimination of the religious exemption.

The case is Miller v. McDonald, issued on March 3. The plaintiffs are three Amish community schools that were fined by New York for noncompliance with the immunization law. They want a religious exemption on the basis that the measles vaccination violates their religious principles, and their religion also requires education in a "group setting" and not home-schooling, which many parents have opted for to avoid the vaccine.

The vaccine law adopted in 2019 will be struck down unless it is a law of "general applicability," that is, if it applies to everyone and does not single out any particular religion. Plaintiffs, of course, argue that the 2019 law violates the Free Exercise Clause because it is not neutral. They argue that the language of the 2019 amendment, and comments from legislators who voted on the amendment, demonstrate religious hostility. 

 

The Court of Appeals (Cabranes, Wesley and Lee) says, the law is neutral on its face and does not target or affirmatively prohibit any religious practices; it applies to all schoolchildren in New York who do not qualify for the medical exemption. 

Nor does the legislative history reflect any religious bias. While plaintiff identifies some hostile comments from a few legislators, they have not alleged facts showing those remarks infected "a sizable portion of legislators' votes or otherwise influenced the law's enactment." One case from the Appellate Division holds that statement from three percent of the legislature did not "taint to actions of the whole" in enacting this provision. That case hurts the plaintiffs' case. Another case on this issue involving measles vaccines, M.A. v. Rockland County, 53 F.4th 29 (2d Cir. 2022), held that religious hostility from two governmental officials responsible for issuing a challenged emergency declaration on measles was enough to find liability against the county. But this case is not like the Rockland County case because we are talking about the actions of the State Legislature, not a smaller governmental body like county government.