In Supreme Court review, governor defends religious exemptions to mandatory school vaccinations
Gov. Patrick Morrisey has formally entered his place in a state Supreme Court evaluation of battle between West Virginia’s religious freedoms regulation and its mandatory school vaccination regulation.
Attorneys representing the governor entered a pal of the court docket brief on his behalf on Monday.
“West Virginia law protects religious freedom, and that law must be followed,” Morrisey stated in a statement launched by his workplace.
“Parents should not be forced to choose between their sincere religious beliefs and their child’s right to an education. The Equal Protection for Religion Act is clear, and my administration will continue fighting to ensure that religious liberty is respected across state government.”
The 35-page brief entered by the state Attorney General’s Office on Morrisey’s behalf is without doubt one of the steps in an attraction of a Raleigh County circuit choose’s current ruling in a case with statewide implications.
The circuit choose in Raleigh County, Michael Froble, late final yr dominated in favor of households who need the general public school system to settle for religious exemptions processed by the state well being division.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has placed to stay on decrease court docket exercise surrounding the vaccine exemptions case, which means that Judge Froble’s ruling is on maintain whereas the attraction goes ahead.
The Supreme Court has not but set a date for oral arguments.
The governor’s transient asks the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to affirm the decrease court docket’s ruling.
“This case is not about whether vaccines are effective or whether families may choose them,” Morrisey stated within the assertion distributed by his workplace.
“It is about whether the government can ignore a law designed to protect sincere religious exercise. West Virginia must be a state where families of faith are not pushed out of the classroom because they exercised rights protected by law.”
West Virginia’s obligatory vaccination regulation means college students coming into school for the primary time should show proof of immunization towards diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B except correctly medically exempted.
Morrisey issued an government order final yr linking the Equal Protection for Religion Act with the vaccine regulation, which has no express religious exceptions.
The religious protections regulation offers residents the suitable to sue in the event that they consider their deeply held beliefs are being suppressed. But the regulation contains further components to weigh, together with whether or not a compelling state curiosity exists to uphold a coverage beneath the least restrictive means.
The Morrisey administration directed households to apply for exemptions by means of the state well being division, however West Virginia school methods didn’t settle for them.
The governor’s transient argues that the state board’s place violates the religious safety act by treating religious objectors extra restrictively than others who’re additionally permitted to attend or work in faculties whereas unvaccinated, together with college students with medical exemptions and adults who are usually not topic to the identical vaccination necessities.
“EPRA is not aspirational, and it is not a policy preference. It is the law of West Virginia, duly enacted and binding on every state actor,” wrote Holly Wilson, principal deputy solicitor basic.
The transient additionally maintains the governor’s government order was inside his constitutional authority to guarantee devoted execution of West Virginia regulation, together with the Equal Protection for Religion Act, repeatedly shortened to EPRA.
“The Governor acted lawfully to harmonize EPRA and the vaccination regulation. The government department is constitutionally charged with implementing the regulation, and that obligation extends to there the legal guidelines — together with EPR,” wrote the attorneys on Morrisey’s behalf.
The transient comprises the state Board of Education acted past its personal scope by delivering a blanket rejection of religious exemptions.
“The Board can’t have it both ways. If it has the power to enforce the vaccination law, it answers to the Governor, and it must comply with EPRA and the executive order,” wrote the attorneys for the governor.
If it’s a constitutionally impartial fourth department of presidency centered on school-related operations — because it insists — then it had no enterprise implementing the health-related vaccination regulation within the first place, and its no-religious-exemption coverage was illegal from the beginning. Either approach, the Board loses.”
