by WorldTribune Staff, August 28, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
In 2019, following a measles outbreak in a New York Orthodox Jewish community, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, rescinded religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates.
At the time, only California had ever made such a move.
New York state law now requires all children to receive between 24 and 27 jabs to attend K through 12 schools, according to the state Department of Health vaccine schedule.
The state’s Amish community, which numbers about 25,000, objects and is threatening a mass exodus if the religious exemption is not restored, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
Lawyers for Amish plaintiffs say their clients will petition the Supreme Court next month – and that if they lose there, the families intend to leave the state.
The state counts every day an unvaccinated student attends as a separate violation, at up to $2,000 each. Three Amish schools in three separate communities – Shady Lane in Clymer, Pleasant View in Heuvelton, and Dygert Road near Canajoharie – were fined a combined $118,000.
The only way the community would be able to meet the fines is if the state confiscated their land, according to Aaron Siri, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
The schools and several parents sued. After losing at the district court and the Second Circuit, they petitioned the Supreme Court in summer 2025, which vacated the ruling in December 2025 and sent it back for reconsideration.
In June, the same panel ruled against the Amish again. The Second Circuit has a track record on vaccines and religious exceptions, having ruled against at least five other recent plaintiffs who were fired from their jobs for refusing the Covid jab.
Now the Amish will officially petition the Supreme Court to hear their case again next month, their lawyers say.
Amish culture generally forbids both litigation and injectables. “The Amish really don’t want to be in this position. They don’t want to be engaging in this lawsuit in any way at all. But they’ve been left with no choice,” Siri told The Post.
When the Amish do end up in court, they have a good track record of victories.
In Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania Amish plaintiffs prevailed in state-level cases from the 1980s to 2020s involving photo IDs, buggy safety equipment and building codes—each time granted reasonable workarounds when the modern hooey of photography, reflective tape and septic tanks threatened their way of life.
Lawyers for the Amish say they have the federal government on their side this time.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told the New York Post that a recent executive order issued by President Donald Trump reaffirmed their “commitment to parental choice and religious freedom when it comes to childhood vaccination.”
