Columbus, OH – On Monday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to hear Miller v. McDonald. In 2019, New York state stopped allowing religious exemptions to its state vaccine mandate, something it had allowed for more than 50 years, even for children who attend private Amish schools.

“For hundreds of years, the Amish have eschewed modern worldly influences, including modern medicine. It is a core part of their religious beliefs and a right that the U.S. Constitution protects,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute.

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.

First Liberty Institute represents the Amish families in Miller v. McDonald.

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