Supreme Court Denies Emergency Request for Religious Exemption to New York School Vaccine Mandate

The US Supreme Court has denied an emergency request from a New York mother seeking to bypass state vaccine mandates so her 5-year-old son could attend kindergarten. The unsigned order, issued Tuesday, leaves the child barred from the classroom while the family pursues a broader First Amendment challenge in lower federal courts. The mother, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, argued that New York’s strict vaccination requirements violate her Catholic faith and force an unconstitutional choice between her religious convictions and her child's education.[2][3][4]

Doe sought a temporary injunction against Section 2164 of the New York Public Health Law, which mandates standard childhood immunizations for school attendance. The statute contains a blanket denial of religious exemptions, a provision that has become the focal point of intense legal scrutiny. In an April statement submitted to the Waverly School in Eastchester, Doe articulated her specific theological objection to the mandated shots. "Vaccination injects biological material derived from unclean sources directly into the bloodstream," she wrote to the district. "My faith forbids this."[2][3][4]

State and local officials urged the Supreme Court to reject the injunction, arguing that granting a religious carve-out would severely undermine public health efforts to prevent the spread of communicable diseases among students. New York lawmakers repealed the state's longstanding religious exemption to school vaccine rules in June 2019. That legislative action followed the largest measles outbreak the state had experienced in three decades, which health officials attributed to falling vaccination rates in specific communities. While the religious waiver was eliminated, the state's medical exemptions remain intact.[2][3]

The emergency application was initially presented to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees emergency matters arising from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor referred the petition to the full Court, which ultimately denied the request without addressing the underlying merits of the constitutional claims. The ruling was not unanimous; Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch noted publicly in the order that they would have granted the mother's application, signaling a continued appetite among the Court's conservative wing to scrutinize state public health mandates that intersect with religious practice.[3]

The decision aligns with the Court’s recent posture on emergency interventions regarding state vaccine laws, even as it expands religious liberties elsewhere. In October 2025, the justices declined a similar request from a California woman seeking to opt her son out of student vaccine requirements for religious reasons. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the Court similarly left in place mandates for healthcare workers who argued the requirements violated their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion.[2]

Despite Tuesday's denial, legal scholars anticipate the Supreme Court will eventually take up the broader question of religious exemptions to state vaccine mandates. The Court has steadily expanded free exercise rights under the First Amendment in recent terms. This includes a recent 6-3 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which sided with a multi-faith group of parents in Maryland who argued the First Amendment accorded them the religious freedom to opt their children out of English language curricula based on books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.[1]

A separate challenge to New York’s 2019 repeal, Miller v. McDonald, is currently working its way through the federal appellate docket and may present a stronger test case for the justices. That lawsuit was brought by Amish parents whose children attend private schools in Upstate New York, claiming their faith prohibits vaccination. The Supreme Court recently remanded Miller back to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, instructing the lower court to reconsider the Amish parents' claims specifically in light of the new precedent established by the Mahmoud decision.[1]

For now, Doe’s underlying appeal remains pending before a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit, which previously denied her request for a temporary injunction, as did a federal district judge in New York. The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a note in 2020 stating that vaccination is not a moral obligation and must be voluntary, though it added that those who refuse for reasons of conscience must take other steps to avoid spreading disease. Doe has agreed to keep her son home during active outbreaks if granted an exemption.[3]

Without the Supreme Court's intervention, Doe and parents in similar positions face a stark set of options as the academic year begins. Under New York law, children who remain unvaccinated without a valid medical exemption cannot attend public or private schools, and schools face steep fines for admitting them. Families seeking to maintain their religious objections to the mandated schedule must choose between compliance, transitioning to full-time homeschooling, or relocating to one of the states that still permits religious waivers for student immunizations.[3][4]