Overview
- Plaintiffs in Miller v. McDonald have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear their challenge to New York’s school vaccine requirements, escalating the long-running lawsuit.
- New York’s Department of Health has fined noncompliant Amish schools, with three plaintiff schools reported to carry a combined $118,000 in penalties for refusing required immunizations.
- The case was previously sent back to the 2nd Circuit by the Supreme Court and that appellate court dismissed the complaint before the plaintiffs filed the rehearing petition.
- Amish leaders and attorneys say enforcement of the mandate threatens their way of life and say the community could relocate out of state; Amish schooling typically takes place in privately run one‑room schools that do not take public funds.
- The dispute traces to New York’s 2019 removal of non‑medical exemptions after a measles outbreak and tests how courts will balance the state’s list of more than 20 required childhood vaccines against claims of religious liberty, with potential effects on public‑health enforcement and community migration.