In one-room parochial school houses near the Canadian border in upstate New York, clusters of Amish children study reading and writing, arithmetic and God.
These are church-run schools on private land. They generally receive no public funding.
But the schools are racking up big fines: up to $2,000 for each day an unvaccinated child attends classes.
The fines — and New York state’s demand that the children receive vaccinations for once-common but largely eradicated diseases like measles and polio — are fueling a battle over religious liberty that could be decided by the Supreme Court. The Amish say that if they lose, they may leave New York en masse, in search of a new home where they can disregard secular public health mandates.
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“Only the Supreme Court can save the Amish in New York now,” Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based Christian legal organization that is representing the Amish residents in a lawsuit against the state, told Straight Arrow. “Nine people hold in their hands the future for the Amish.”
The case arises as a growing number of Americans question the need for — and the safety of — vaccinations. What once was unexceptional — a doctor’s appointment, a shot and a form to be shared with a child’s school — has become fraught with politics.
But for the Amish of New York, it’s not about politics. For years, they were able to opt out of vaccine mandates for their children based on their religious beliefs and First Amendment rights.
That changed in 2019, when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a measure into law that repealed religious vaccine exemptions, making New York one of just five states to not offer the privilege.
The Amish sued the state in 2022, saying it was violating their rights to the free practice of religion and equal protection under the law. But a federal trial court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both sided with the state. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration, and it reaffirmed its previous decision in June.
Now the Supreme Court could have the final say on which takes precedence: public health or religious freedom.
‘A conflict which has no solution’
The dispute over vaccinating Amish children stems from a measles outbreak among Jewish children.
In 2018, the Rockland County Department of Health, just north of New York City, alerted the state Department of Health about an unvaccinated teenager visiting from Israel who had contracted measles. Over the next seven days, officials learned that six more unvaccinated travelers also had measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ultimately, there were 312 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County. No deaths were reported, but it was the largest measles outbreak in New York state since 1992.
The following year, the state legislature removed the religious exemption from a law requiring all children attending school — whether public or private — to be vaccinated.
“The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe,” Cuomo said when he signed the bill. “While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health and by signing this measure into law, we will help prevent further transmissions and stop this outbreak right in its tracks.”
Officials with the state’s health and education departments did not respond to requests for comment.
When parents at three Amish schools — Dygert Road, Pleasant View and Shady Lane, all in hamlets where many of New York state’s 25,000 Amish residents live — refused to comply with the 2019 law, the state responded by issuing fines against the schools and community members. Those fines now total $118,000.
Two parents — Joseph Miller and Jonas Smucker — and Ezra Wengard, who was elected by the Amish community as a representative of all Amish schools, sued New York state’s commissioners of health and education, claiming that requirements to vaccinate their children against measles, polio, chicken pox and whooping cough were unconstitutional.
The Amish plaintiffs say their religious beliefs require them to remain separate from aspects of the modern world and that this is their religious right to refuse vaccinations.
“Our Almighty God wants us to fully put our faith & trust in Him which is in conflict to put our trust in vaccines,” community members said in a handwritten letter contained in court files. “We are also commanded to not be conformed to this world, Romans 12-1-2. If we honestly obey this, then it will affect everything we do, yes even in the way we try to remain healthy.”
One Amish parent wrote: “Forcing us to violate our religious beliefs, will create a conflict which has no solution. A large percentage of the Amish and Mennonite families will choose other consequences before going against our religious convictions. … We are commanded to obey God rather than man.”
In their lawsuit, the Amish parents also say that “some of the vaccines are based on fetal or aborted cell lines,” so “we believe it would be an abomination to our creator to inject such into our bodies.”
Some vaccines have historically been developed or manufactured using cell lines originally derived from elective abortions decades ago, according to the National Institutes of Health. However, vaccine experts say that vaccines themselves do not contain fetal tissue or fetal cells.
Courts, including the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, said the state had the right to eliminate the religious exemption because the law did not single out any specific religion. The law still allows parents to opt out of vaccinations for medical reasons.
Counting on the Supreme Court
The first time the Amish took their case to the Supreme Court, the justices sent it back to the appeals court for reconsideration. The outcome didn’t change.
This time, however, they have the Trump administration on their side.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told the New York Post that a recent executive order reaffirmed the administration’s “commitment to parental choice and religious freedom when it comes to childhood vaccination.”
If they lose, there may be a mass exodus of Amish people from New York. Where they would go remains unclear. The nearby state of Pennsylvania is home to the largest Amish population in the U.S. At this point, Pennsylvania still allows a religious exemption for its vaccine mandates.
“It seems like the justices wanted the state to take a hard look at how their policy impacts parental rights,” Sasser, the lawyer representing the Amish, told Straight Arrow. “We don’t want to speculate what the court might do. But the Amish are counting on it to save them.”
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