Supreme Court rejects challenge to Conn. law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the states longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges, and day-care facilities.

The justices did not comment in leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the contentious law. A lower court judge had earlier dismissed the lawsuit challenging the law, which drew protests at the state Capitol.

Connecticut law requires students to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school, allowing some medical exemptions. Before 2021, students also could seek religious exemptions. Lawmakers ended the religious exemption over concerns that an increase in exemption requests was coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.

The change allowed current students in K-12 who already had a religious exemption to keep it.

This is the end of the road to a challenge to Connecticuts life-saving and fully lawful vaccine requirements, Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. We have said all along, and the courts have affirmed, the Legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and to stop the spread of preventable disease.

Brian Festa, vice president for the group We The Patriots USA Inc., a lead plaintiff in the case, called the decision disappointing but said its not the end of the road for us in our fight to win back religious exemptions for schoolchildren.

The group which has challenged other vaccination laws, including for COVID-19 had joined several parents in arguing that Connecticut violated religious freedom protections by removing the exemption. The new law shows a hostility to religious believers and jeopardizes their rights to medical freedom and childrearing, they said in court papers.

We The Patriots USA also has an ongoing federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Christian preschool and day care thats challenging Connecticuts vaccine mandate on constitutional grounds.

It is our practice at We The Patriots USA to battle on many fronts simultaneously, and to never put all of our eggs in one basket, Festa said, calling the Supreme Courts decision on Monday one setback, but far from a total defeat.

Justices on Monday also rejected two appeals related to COVID-19 vaccines from Childrens Health Defense, the antivaccine nonprofit founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The justices did not comment in letting stand rulings against the group from the federal appeals courts in New Orleans and Philadelphia.

In a case from Texas, the group joined parents in objecting to the Food and Drug Administrations authorization to administer coronavirus vaccines to children. In a case from New Jersey, Childrens Health Defense challenged a Rutgers University requirement, imposed in 2021, for most students to be vaccinated to attend courses on campus, though the school did not force faculty or staff to be vaccinated.

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Supreme Court rejects challenge to Conn. law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption - The Boston Globe