Anti-Vaxxers Suit To Stop Religious Exemption Law Denied [POLL]

The law in New York, the state with the most number of the nation's measles cases, now says that there are no longer any religious exemptions for vaccinations. The legislation was supported overwhelmingly by the Senate and the Assembly and quickly signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June.

Anti-vaccine activists brought a lawsuit attempting to block the new law from going into effect, but Friday a state Supreme Court justice shot down the group of 55 families, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Rockland County attorney Michael Sussman, nydailynews.com said.

The suit argued that banning all non-medical exemptions was unconstitutional and interfered with religious freedom.

Sussman posted on Facebook that Justice L. Michael Mackey denied the group's request for a temporary restraining order.

"Justice Mackey reasoned that other courts have upheld the state's right to order mandatory vaccinations and concluded we had not met or carried the very high burden of demonstrating substantial likelihood of ultimate success on our claims, a burden which the party seeking a TRO must meet," he wrote. "That we may disagree is of no immediate moment."

Sussman said that Mackey set a briefing schedule and "expressed the view that if [sic] can demonstrate the merits of our case before him or another judge, we will have time to do so before September and the extensive irreparable harm children will then suffer."

Democratic Sen. David Carlucci, who represents Westchester and Rockland counties, said the bill he co-sponsored was about public safety and following science.

"Vaccines save lives, and not one single organized religion denounces vaccines," he said when the bill was signed. "We cannot allow misinformation based on junk science to fuel anti-vaccine sentiment."

As of July 3, more than 1,100 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 28 of the state in the U.S. in 2019. Centers for Disease Control officials said this is the biggest outbreak reported in the country since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. Most of the confirmed cases have been in New York State.

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