Vaccine Mandate After All? Amish School Parents Lose 2nd Round — Court Finds Case “Without Merit”
Amish parents in New York face a setback in the latest of a back-and-forth series of court decisions. In news released Tuesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the Amish parents and schools in the long-running case over vaccine requirements in New York schools.
As a reminder, the current NY law requires vaccines not only in public schools, but in privately-operated ones as well, which is why the Amish, most of whom run their own schools, are involved here. From the Times Union report:
MANHATTAN — New York’s school vaccination requirements can remain in place, a federal appeals court ruled this week, dealing another blow to schools and families who had argued that the state’s school vaccination rules violated their religious freedom rights under the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld an earlier federal decision in a case filed against state Health Commissioner James McDonald on behalf of Amish parents and three Amish community schools in central New York, each fined tens of thousands of dollars for failing to comply with vaccine laws.
If you’ve been following this one, you’ll remember I called the most recent development an Amish “victory” back in December, when the Supreme Court vacated the Second Circuit’s original ruling, sending the case back for a second look at the lower court. This was in light of a separate parental-rights ruling, Mahmoud v. Taylor.
That second look is now finished. And unfortunately for the Amish families involved, the result is the same as the first time around.
A quick recap: New York allowed religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements from 1966 until 2019, when the state eliminated them following a measles outbreak.
Three upstate New York Amish schools were fined a combined $118,000 for continuing to enroll unvaccinated children. The schools and several parents sued, and eventually took the case to the Supreme Court after losing at both the district court and appeals court level.
This week, per the Times Union, the same Second Circuit panel wrote that it had “reconsidered” its decision and found the Amish schools’ arguments to be “without merit.”
It sounds like this was expected by the Amish side:
“We kind of figured that’s what would happen,” said Ezra Wengerd, an elected representative of Amish schools in New York who was a plaintiff in the case.
Wengerd, reached by phone Wednesday morning, declined to comment further.
What happens next? It would appear that the six-figure fines remain in place, as do the vaccination mandate. New York is currently one of five states which bar religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements.
Will there be another appeal? Or will these families affected end up looking for another place to live, as we’ve recently seen Amish do when they come up against local laws that impede their way of life?
Vaccines and New York
The best thing would be to consider leaving the State!
Sounds extreme?
Remember when the Covid outbreak stirred up the controversy of to be or not to be vaccinated in New York? Gov. Hochul infamously proclaimed there would be no religious exemptions to the so-called vaccine! She stated she was Roman Catholic and [in effect] spoke from a place of Religious authority.
Socialism and authoritarianism are taking root, not just in the Over-Inflated Apple. Antisemitism is on the rise, and do not think for one instant Christians are exempt from the radar. People who live and think differently are usually the first ones targeted under oppressive regimes.
The Berlin Wall physically fell; 9/11/2001 has not apparently, but obviously been swept under the proverbial rug.
I am in Pennsylvania; New York is not far enough away for me to feel safe!
As I commented recently, Connecticut ALSO has mandated vaccines, NO EXCEPTIONS,. Also run by communists. If you go to FB site Connecticut for Trump, there is a video articulating the names of the people who have been controlling the politics there for years, and they are mostly small hat people, who would have guessed!! They are behind the surveillance centers, that they call “data” centers. To track every last thing we do to further put us in bondage. It was nice that the Amish were reclaiming those abandoned farms we saw when I was a kid going up to the Thousand Islands to go camping. I guess the Amish will have to leave. The Amish, to my knowledge, don’t have any autism, due to them not giving their children the poison vaxes.
They will move on…
Don’t blame them no one should tell you what’s best for your family
Time for war in NY
Looks like time for the people of NY to overthrow the Tyrants.
Unfair Ruling
This is so obviously UNCONSTITUTIONAL! The Supreme Court already ruled the the Mandates Biden put in place were unconstitutional and it violates the Nuremberg Code! No State should be allowed to to impose such requirements!
The Hasidic Jews do not and are are not made to have mandatory vaccines for their children.. please someone tell the Amish to fight this .. Hypocrisy and Prejudice and favoritism. The Jews have more political pull because they donate. This needs to be brought to the attention of a different level x the legislatures and the news.