A federal appeals court last week rejected a First Amendment challenge to New York state’s school vaccination law, saying it is well-settled that requiring vaccinations to attend school is within the “police power” of the states.
A three-judge panel upheld a state regulation that permits officials to temporarily exclude from school students who have valid medical or religious exemptions from vaccination when there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease.
The consolidated cases involved one mother who challenged the denial of a religious exemption for her child, while two other families that received such exemptions challenged the state rule that excluded their children from school during an outbreak of chickenpox.
