LifeSiteNews reports that New York’s Amish community is contesting the state’s vaccine requirements for schoolchildren, with three Amish schools assessed a total of $118,000 in civil penalties and plaintiffs seeking U.S. Supreme Court review. The outlet also says some in the community are “threatening a mass exodus” from the state.
Fines, mandates, and what the state requires
According to LifeSiteNews, Gov. Kathy Hochul has maintained that the state’s vaccine rules apply to Amish children attending one-room schoolhouses—which the report says receive no state or federal funding—and that noncompliance can trigger fines.
The article states New York requires schoolchildren to receive between 24 and 27 shots, citing the New York Department of Health vaccine schedule. It adds that three Amish schools have incurred $118,000 in civil penalties so far. The Amish community’s attorney told the New York Post they could only pay if the state seized their land, per the LifeSiteNews report.
Religious exemptions and the Supreme Court bid
LifeSiteNews notes that New York allowed religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements until 2019, when lawmakers removed them following a measles outbreak in an Orthodox Jewish community.
Attorney Hiram Sasser questioned whether there is still “room for the Amish” and described the community as a test of “our religious liberty and our tolerance,” in remarks attributed to the New York Post and quoted by LifeSiteNews. He also invoked the imagery of one-room schoolhouses to describe the Amish way of life.
The report says a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court quotes New York Sen. James Skoufis as stating, “The religious exemption in New York State is made up. It’s fake. Because there is no religion that objects to vaccines,” and New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz as calling the idea of religious exemption “utter garbage.”
Plaintiff Ezra Wengerd wrote in a letter shared with reporters, “We, as a peace loving religious group, are sincerely sorry that we are causing the state a prob (sic).… Our Almighty God wants us to fully put our faith and trust in Him. Which is in conflict to put our trust in vaccines.”
Political commentary around the fight
According to LifeSiteNews, Tucker Carlson’s Friday news brief said Hochul previously told a church congregation that those who refuse vaccines on religious grounds “aren’t listening to God and what God wants,” and he asked, “Who does she think she is?”
Conservative commentator Liz Churchill wrote on X that “Kathy Hochul’s New York State is fining the Amish over $100,000 DOLLARS because of their tyrannical vaccine mandate,” calling the state’s approach “legal[] abusing” and adding “Absolute Psychopath.”
LifeSiteNews reports the Amish plaintiffs are pinning their hopes on the U.S. Supreme Court taking up the case.
