October 8, 2026- by Steven E. Greer, MD
Traditional Amish families in upstate New York refuse to vaccinate their children based on their deeply held religious principles. In response, New York Health Commissioner Mary Bassett imposed steep financial penalties on December 15, 2022, following strict compliance audits of their independent, one-room parochial schools. The state levied a total of $118,000 against three schools for 59 unvaccinated children, charging up to $2,000 per child for a single day out of compliance. This aggressive enforcement has sparked an intense legal battle that has moved through the federal courts and has now been appealed directly to the Supreme Court of the United States after the Second Circuit ruled that the New York tyranny was legal.
New York State fundamentally changed its public health framework in June 2019 when the legislature enacted a complete repeal of all non-medical exemptions for school immunization requirements. This statutory shift, codified under N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2164 (McKinney 2026), meant that a family’s deeply held religious or philosophical beliefs could no longer legally excuse a child from mandatory school vaccinations. The state mandated that this rule apply uniformly across all public, private, and parochial school systems.
The underlying rationale for this legislation relies heavily on guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The state tiering system dictates that the only legally permissible mechanism to bypass the vaccine schedule is a highly specific medical exemption. This medical exemption must be certified annually by a physician licensed in the state and must demonstrate a recognized clinical contraindication according to federal public health standards.
This zero-tolerance policy directly impacted traditional religious communities, such as the Amish, who have historically educated their children in independent, self-funded parochial settings. Because the state statute provides no carve-outs or religious accommodations for schools operating entirely on private land without public funding, state officials began conducting strict compliance audits on these small, traditional institutions. Members of the community argued that these actions amounted to a targeted assault on their long-standing, self-reliant way of life.
The conflict escalated into a federal lawsuit after the New York State Department of Health levied civil penalties totaling 118,000 dollars against three traditional one-room schools. Under the state’s strict enforcement interpretation, enforced under N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 12 (McKinney 2026), each individual day an unvaccinated child sits in a classroom constitutes a distinct violation, carrying a compounding fine of up to 2,000 dollars per student. The schools and affected parents challenged the constitutionality of the enforcement actions in federal court, as recorded in Miller v. McDonald, No. 24-681 (2d Cir. June 30, 2026).
The Second Circuit ultimately ruled against the Amish families, affirming the lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit. The appellate panel held that New York’s school vaccination law is a neutral, generally applicable statute that serves an overriding public health interest and does not unconstitutionally target or discriminate against any specific religious faith. Following this adverse ruling, the families and their legal counsel from the First Liberty Institute escalated the case by filing a formal appeal, as seen in Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Miller v. McDonald, No. 26-384 (U.S. Sept. 28, 2026).
While New York consolidated its regulatory power over private education, other states enacted diametrically opposed public health frameworks. Florida, for example, passed sweeping legislative measures designed to permanently outlaw vaccine mandates for schools and private businesses alike, while significantly expanding personal and philosophical exemptions for its residents under Fla. Stat. § 381.00316 (2026). This creates a stark geographic split in the legal baseline governing religious liberties and state-enforced health policies.
All of this New York tyranny is based on “science”, which are CDC guidelines. In an effort to scale back the childhood immunization schedule, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy fired the entire 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June 2025 and subsequently directed the CDC to release a revised schedule reducing universally recommended childhood vaccines. However, his administrative rollbacks were immediately stalled when a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on March 16, 2026, in American Academy of Pediatrics v. Kennedy, No. 1:25-cv-11916 (D. Mass. Mar. 16, 2026). The court froze his panel appointments and blocked the revised schedule from taking effect, leaving the traditional CDC guidelines active as the legal benchmark.
The administration is actively appealing this injunction before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which just held oral arguments on October 6, 2026, to decide whether to lift the lower court’s block on the panel changes. Reports from legal news services and independent analysts show that the forty-five-minute appellate hearing focused almost entirely on procedural authority and judicial overreach rather than vaccine science. The three-judge panel expressed skepticism regarding the scope of the lower court’s sweeping injunction.
The State of New York is still mandating the deadly COVID shots to kids and pregnant women