The US Supreme Court refused to consider forcing New York to give more children medical exemptions from the state’s school vaccine requirements.
(Bloomberg) — The US Supreme Court refused to consider forcing New York to give more children medical exemptions from the state’s school vaccine requirements.
The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal by parents who claimed the state violated their constitutional rights when it put in place stricter rules for medical exemptions in 2019.
The new rules require exemptions to be based on a nationally recognized standard of care, such as those contained in guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The parents, joined by the advocacy group Children’s Health Defense, say it should be enough if a state-licensed doctor certifies that a child is at risk of serious harm or death from a vaccine. In their appeal, they said the state’s rules have forced the exclusion of hundreds of “medically fragile” students from school since 2019.
The state changed its rules after the worst measles outbreak in a quarter century, tightening the medical requirements and eliminating the longstanding exemption for families with religious objections. The Supreme Court rejected a religious-rights challenge to the new policy last year.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to state and local vaccine mandates for schoolchildren and government workers.
The case is Goe v. McDonald, 22-404.
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