U.S. Supreme Court Smacks Down Lower Court in Major Win for Amish Families Fighting New York’s Draconian School Vaccine Mandates

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower-court decision that had sided with New York State’s sweeping school vaccine mandates, and ordered the case back to the appeals court for a full reconsideration.

At the center of the case is a shocking and deeply disturbing campaign by New York officials to bankrupt Amish schools, intimidate parents, and shut down religious education entirely, all because the Amish refuse to inject their children with state-mandated vaccines that violate their longstanding religious beliefs.

Despite admitting that the Amish families were sincere in their religious beliefs, the New York Department of Health slapped three one-room Amish schools with devastating penalties:

• $52,000 against Dygert Road School
• $46,000 against Twin Mountains School
• $20,000 against Shady Lane School

These fines were issued for a single day of alleged “noncompliance,” and the DOH openly bragged in its filings that it was being “generous,” warning that future fines would be even more severe.

The department declared that each unvaccinated child attending school constituted a separate violation worth up to $2,000 per day.

The Amish schools, which receive no government funding, operate on private land, and are central to the community’s religious life, face closure because the families have no means of paying these six-figure state-imposed financial attacks.

In one year alone, some New York schools granted medical exemptions to 30–50% of their students, depending entirely on local administrator discretion. But the Amish? Zero tolerance. Zero accommodation. Zero exemptions.

Lower courts dismissed their claims. But on Monday, the nation’s highest court issued a rare and forceful correction.

In its Monday order, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for reconsideration “in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. 522 (2025),” a landmark ruling handed down earlier this year strengthening protections for religious objectors against state public-health mandates.

Children’s Health Defense reported:

Today’s ruling is a win for health and religious freedom advocates — one that could have implications for other states that don’t allow religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates, attorneys said.

Attorney Sujata Gibson told The Defender today’s Supreme Court decision is “checkmate” for states that refuse to accept religious exemptions. “It means we’re almost certainly getting the religious exemption back, not only in New York, but across the country,” Gibson said.

[…]

Today’s Supreme Court decision will also likely affect other states that deny religious exemptions, said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg. She told The Defender:

“While the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. McDonald directly relates to the religious exemption to vaccine mandates in New York state, it will have broader implications in other states that have stripped citizens of religious exemptions.

“As Supreme Court precedent, Mahmoud v. Taylor applies in all those states, not only New York, and should be considered by any court taking up these questions.”

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