Oct 9, 2026 · 31 min · 12 segments
Dennis O'Brien & Daniel Levin sit down with Chris DelliCarpini to discuss their most recent article The Immunization Exemption Battleground: Second Circuit Reaffirms Ban on School Religious…
So your article discusses the decision Miller vs. McDonald that the Second Circuit handed down in June of this year.
But the story of religious exemptions of vaccines goes back to a statutory amendment in New York in 2019.
So in 2019, the New York State Legislature repealed the religious exemption provision under Section 2164 of New York State Public Health Law.
It really started during the prior school year when New York became the epicenter of a nationwide measles epidemic.
And in New York, there were over 800 students who contracted measles during that school year.
state legislature in 2019 religious exemption provi New York became just one have repealed the religio including California, Conn So we're only talking abo here like New York that h After the religious exemption repeal, it left intact the medical exemption on the books, which is still used today in the procedure.
This amendment got challenged, and I think it went up all the way to the New York Court of Appeals.
And you have to remember, too, that during the time that this amendment took place, you know, there were students in school that had previously had religious exemptions.
And parents of New York State students that objected to the repeal of the religious exemption challenged the legislature's determination.
Now, that case was ultimately decided by the Third Department Appellate Division in a case called FF as Parent of Maya.
And in that case, the Appellate Division determined that the legislature's decision to repeal the religious exemption was not violative of either the New York State or the United States Constitution's.
In making its determination, the court applied a rational basis standard of review, and it held that since the repeal had placed all schoolchildren on equal footing, the legislature had a legitimately rational basis to attempt to raise New York State's immunization rates by removing that one category of exemptions, the religious exemption.
So your article discusses the decision Miller vs. McDonald that the Second Circuit handed down in June of this year.
But the story of religious exemptions of vaccines goes back to a statutory amendment in New York in 2019.
So in 2019, the New York State Legislature repealed the religious exemption provision under Section 2164 of New York State Public Health Law.
It really started during the prior school year when New York became the epicenter of a nationwide measles epidemic.
And in New York, there were over 800 students who contracted measles during that school year.
state legislature in 2019 religious exemption provi New York became just one have repealed the religio including California, Conn So we're only talking abo here like New York that h After the religious exemption repeal, it left intact the medical exemption on the books, which is still used today in the procedure.
This amendment got challenged, and I think it went up all the way to the New York Court of Appeals.
And you have to remember, too, that during the time that this amendment took place, you know, there were students in school that had previously had religious exemptions.
And parents of New York State students that objected to the repeal of the religious exemption challenged the legislature's determination.
Now, that case was ultimately decided by the Third Department Appellate Division in a case called FF as Parent of Maya.
And in that case, the Appellate Division determined that the legislature's decision to repeal the religious exemption was not violative of either the New York State or the United States Constitution's.
In making its determination, the court applied a rational basis standard of review, and it held that since the repeal had placed all schoolchildren on equal footing, the legislature had a legitimately rational basis to attempt to raise New York State's immunization rates by removing that one category of exemptions, the religious exemption.
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