Censorship/Surveillance
Advocates for Religious Exemptions Notch Victories in West Virginia, Massachusetts
In West Virginia, a judge dismissed one lawsuit challenging religious exemptions, while another judge ruled mandatory school vaccines violated the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023. In Massachusetts, a grassroots effort prevented a House vote on a bill to remove religious exemptions for schoolchildren.
A West Virginia court last week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which challenged Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order allowing religious objections to the state’s vaccine requirements for school attendance.
In a July 23 ruling, Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit on procedural grounds, ruling that the petitioners failed to meet a legal requirement that they notify the state 30 days in advance of filing the lawsuit. The ruling did not address the merits of the complaint.
The lawsuit, filed in May in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County on behalf of two West Virginia parents of immunocompromised children, alleged Morrisey did not have the constitutional authority to issue an executive order overriding state school vaccination statutes.
The executive order, issued in January, cites the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023. It allows parents to request a religious exemption for their children by providing a written statement explaining why they object to the vaccines.
Morrisey called the ruling against the ACLU the “first skirmish of a longer fight.” West Virginia is “a radical outlier when it comes to onerous vaccine mandates — one of only five states in the nation without a statutorily-based, religious exemption,” he said.
California, Maine, New York and Connecticut also prohibit religious or philosophical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Every other state offers a religious or personal exemption to public school vaccine requirements.
Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), applauded the ruling. “Being forced to put a man-made pharmaceutical product into one’s body violates religious freedom — and other rights — on many grounds,” she said.
West Virginia state law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require COVID-19 shots for kids.
Chanda Adkins, president of West Virginians for Health Freedom, said the judge’s dismissal “removed one more roadblock to protecting the religious liberties of West Virginia families.”
Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice, said:
“It is fantastic to see courts recognizing that religious liberty is protected not only in the federal Constitution but also in nearly every state constitution across the nation.
“West Virginia is on its way to putting behind it a troubling past of discrimination against those who refuse vaccination for their kids on religious grounds. The battle is not over yet, but it is headed in the right direction.”
Separate West Virginia ruling favors families seeking religious exemptions
In another ruling in West Virginia, the Raleigh County Circuit Court on July 24 granted a preliminary injunction to three families challenging the county Board of Education’s decision to deny their children the right to attend public school.
The lawsuit relates to a dispute between Morrisey’s executive order and the state Board of Education’s subsequent directive to county school systems. That directive instructs schools to follow the state’s current school vaccination law, which does not recognize religious exemptions, instead of Morrisey’s order.
In his ruling, Circuit Judge Michael Froble said the state’s mandatory school vaccine law is invalid because it doesn’t contain a religious exemption, so it runs afoul of the Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023, according to West Virginia Watch.
The West Virginia Board of Education said the ruling is limited and applies only to the three families in question. The board said it would decide its next steps in the coming days.
Chris Wiest, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told West Virginia Watch that the plaintiffs were “being forced to either give in to the state’s demands of vaccination, contrary to their religious beliefs, or not send their kids to school, which is a guarantee under the West Virginia Constitution for the West Virginia Supreme Court, a fundamental right.”
Wiest said this placed “a substantial burden on these plaintiffs’ religious exercise.”
According to West Virginia Watch, Morrisey called the ruling “another legal victory in the fight for religious freedom.”
Attorney Aaron Siri, who has represented claimants across the U.S. in cases concerning COVID-19 mandates and vaccine injuries, is one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. A hearing on a permanent injunction is expected in the coming months.
Adkins said Morrisey’s executive order “has already opened the door for hundreds of children to enroll in or remain in school during the spring of 2025 under a religious exemption to vaccination.” She said the West Virginia Board of Education acknowledged during a recent court hearing that approximately 500 parents across the state have requested religious exemptions.
In March, the West Virginia House of Delegates rejected Senate Bill 460, which would have codified religious exemptions into law. However, Morrisey’s executive order remains in effect.
Last year, former Gov. Jim Justice vetoed a bill that would have allowed private schools to grant religious exemptions and would have exempted virtual-only public school students. The bill garnered majorities in the state’s legislative chambers.
“Families are hopeful that the West Virginia Legislature during its 2026 session will pass legislation establishing in West Virginia Code the right to a religious exemption to compulsory vaccination,” Adkins said.
Advocates prevent vote on Massachusetts bill ending religious exemptions
Massachusetts health and medical freedom advocates also recently scored a victory.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers introduced bills to remove religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates in the Senate (S.1557) and the House of Representatives (H.2554).
According to Candice Edwards, executive director of Health Action Massachusetts, the House bill was moved from the Joint Committee on Public Health to the House Steering, Policy and Scheduling Committee last week — a precursor to sending the bill to the House floor for a vote.
“The Steering Committee doesn’t hold hearings or amend bills,” she said. “Its main role is to send bills directly to the House floor for a vote, often without any further review. It’s a fast-track step in the process — bills rarely get redirected to another committee once they’re there.”
However, in what Kane called a “near miracle,” health and medical freedom advocates launched a campaign to prevent the legislation from going to a vote.
“Phone calls and emails over the past five days stopped that from happening,” he said of the effort, supported by CHD.
This occurred even though “no legislative alert was sent out when the bill moved,” Edwards said, leaving parents “in the dark.”
“We did not want this to get to a floor vote,” Edwards said. “The referral of a bill out of the Steering Committee to another committee rarely happens — but we pushed hard and made the case.”
Instead, the bill was routed on Wednesday to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. Edwards said this committee “can now take a closer look at how the bill would impact families, schools and the state budget.”
This move “is so rare, it’s almost unheard of,” she said.
“This victory demonstrates both the vigilance of the grassroots movement and the lengths to which some are willing to go to suppress transparency and push this bill through,” said Julie Booras, co-founder of Health Rights MA.
Edwards said the Senate bill remains before the Joint Committee on Public Health, which has until Aug. 4 to vote it out of committee or request a 30-day extension.
According to the Worcester Telegram, Massachusetts parents can write a letter stating that a vaccine conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief. However, this exemption is not available during an emergency or epidemic declared by the state Department of Health.
The Boston Globe reported that a June 6 hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Health to debate the bills drew parents from “across the state” who testified in support of religious exemptions.
Booras said the hearing featured “over seven hours of testimony, the vast majority of which was in strong opposition to removing the religious exemption.”
She said:
“Given the public opposition expressed at the hearing and the substantial grassroots organizing underway, there is reason to believe that passage is not inevitable. However, powerful forces, including well-funded medical lobbying groups, are working hard behind the scenes.”
Bridget Kearns, who heads CHD’s New England Chapter, said, “85% of testimony was in opposition to these bills.”
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Battle around religious exemptions ‘poised to take the national stage’
In a policy statement published earlier this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for an end to religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions for children attending daycare and school in the U.S.
Earlier this month, NBC News reported that “vaccinations rise when states button up religious loopholes,” citing the examples of California and Maine.
Kane said:
“The issue of religious exemptions is taking on a national scope in a major way. There is major chatter happening in congressional offices and elsewhere that is coming out into the mainstream media. … The battle around religious exemptions to vaccinations for kids is poised to take the national stage.”
Recent polls have shown rising public support for religious and medical exemptions.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the journal Vaccine in February found that 74% of elementary school personnel surveyed in California did not believe their schools had the authority to deny medical exemptions and that a majority opposed COVID-19 mandates.
A survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center in January showed that public support for religious exemptions has nearly doubled in the last six years.
A July 2024 Gallup poll found that support for mandatory school vaccination has declined in recent years.
Holland said:
“This country was founded on religious freedom. Either this bedrock religious right will be recognized in all 50 states, or this country will descend into medical tyranny. The ultimate outcome is not in doubt; the country at the end of the day will reject radical medical mandates that violate human freedom.”
Related articles in The Defender
- West Virginia Schools Ordered to Defy Governor on Religious Exemptions
- ‘Huge Win’: West Virginia Governor Issues Executive Order Allowing Religious Exemptions
- Vaccine Religious Exemptions: What to Know as Your Child Heads Back to School
- Public Support for Religious Exemptions Nearly Doubled Over Past 6 Years
- Massachusetts Proposes Laws to Remove Religious Exemptions, Parental Consent for Vaccines
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