Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to hear Perry v. Marteney. West Virginia removed a student from a virtual public school after her parents declined to vaccinate her because of their religious beliefs, even though the state exempts homeschoolers, learning pods, and microschools from its own vaccine requirements.

“West Virginia lets homeschoolers and learning pod students skip vaccines entirely, yet it kicked a student out of an online school because her parents declined to vaccinate their child. That is not public health policy. That is discrimination,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “This case presents the U.S. Supreme Court with the opportunity to clarify that the state should not be given deferential treatment when it wants to infringe on individual rights.”

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argues that lower courts have misread Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 Supreme Court decision that upheld a $5 fine for refusing a smallpox vaccine, as giving governments nearly free rein whenever they invoke public health. The brief points out that the court later relied on that same decision to justify forced sterilization in the infamous Buck v. Bell, a warning about how far Jacobson’s reasoning can be stretched. The Buckeye Institute asks the court to clarify that health laws must respect religious freedom and parents’ rights and may not favor nonreligious exemptions over religious ones.

Alliance Defending Freedom represents the Perrys in Perry v. Marteney.

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