First Amendment

New York Is Fining Amish Schools Over Vaccines, So the Amish Are Asking the Supreme Court for Help

After $118,000 in fines for allowing unvaccinated students to attend Amish schools, the plaintiffs are pursuing a case that could reshape how the courts protect religious exercise.

Ryan Curtis | 10.8.2026 1:00 PM

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New York state's Amish community has been facing heavy government fines for allowing students to attend Amish schools without proof of vaccination. Now the Amish are asking the Supreme Court to intervene.  

From 1966 to 2019, unvaccinated students were allowed to attend school in New York with a medical exemption issued by a physician, or if they "hold genuine and sincere religious beliefs" opposed to vaccination. But in 2018 and through 2019, a measles outbreak—the largest in nearly 20 years—spread among the state's Orthodox Jewish communities. Through effective disease control practices, the outbreak was contained with zero associated deaths.

Rattled, officials amended the state's legal code in June 2019 to remove all religious exemptions to school vaccine mandates. The legislator who introduced the bill, Jeffrey Dinowitz (D–Bronx), attributed the outbreak to "misinformation and irresponsible rhetoric." But instead of scaling up information campaigns, he chose to crack down........

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