Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall recently filed a 20-state amicus brief in an effort to shield Amish communities in rural New York from state-sponsored backlash for exercising their religious freedoms. The legal action holds New York accountable for leveling “massive penalties” on Amish only private schools in rural New York in response to parents of the students electing, for religious reasons, not to vaccinate their children in accordance with the state’s vaccine mandates.
The brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and specifically alleges that New York violated the First Amendment rights of parents to exercise their religion and raise their children according to their deeply held beliefs. Almost every other state in the country accommodates religious objections to school vaccine requirements.
“New York has so little regard for religion that it will seek out, harass, and threaten Amish communities that want only to live out their faith amongst themselves,” Marshall said. “Parents should not be forced to choose between their children’s schooling and their fundamental rights. Unfortunately, we’re seeing a growing trend of hostility toward religious liberty. I was shocked to learn that members of the New York legislature had called such religious beliefs ‘fake’ and ‘garbage.’
“We need to resist this hostility before it infects the federal courts too.”
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The states taking part in the brief argue that the First Amendment was designed to protect religious minorities, like the Amish. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly defended parental rights in the areas of religious education and the religious upbringing of one’s children. The brief also explains that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York wrongly found that New York’s repeal of religious accommodations was “neutral and generally applicable.”
Additionally, they believe that the law discriminates against religion because it permits students to be unvaccinated, so long as they give “health” reasons, not religious ones.
The legal representatives of the group of states emphasized that public health is not a legitimate reason to trample on the rights of conscience, and they fear that States like New York and the federal government will continue to encroach on these essential freedoms.
The Alabama-led coalition also included: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
