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Three Amish schools in upstate New York are being forced to fork over $118,000 in fines to the state for allowing unvaccinated children to attend school in their classrooms and the families are insisting that the only way they could possibly pay the bill is for the state to seize their land, the New York Post reported.
There are approximately 25,000 Amish living in New York, the fifth largest Amish population in the country, according to the Post. The three schools involved are Dygert Road near Canajoharie, Pleasant View in Heuvelton and Shady Lane in Clymer. They are private schools and receive no public monies. The families' attorneys say every Amish school in the state is in the same situation as these schools. The state began issuing fines of up to $2,000 per unvaccinated child in 2022, and they total $118,000 for 59 children.
New York's school vaccine requirements allowed religious exemptions from 1966 until June 2019. Legislation passed that June by the legislature and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 13, 2019, repealed the religious exemption and thereby prohibited any future exemptions on the basis of religious belief, First Liberty Institute noted.
The Amish families involved in this dispute have been fighting in federal court in Miller v. McDonald for the right to have their children in Amish schools with no vaccine required on religious grounds. After a lower court rejected their arguments to the exemption from required school vaccinations on religious grounds, the families were denied by the Second Circuit in Miller v. McDonald. Their case was subsequently vacated by the Supreme Court and then re-adjudged by the Second Circuit in light of their decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor and denied again on June 30. The families have now asked the Supreme Court to take the case again.
Note that the amount already imposed by the state is $118,000, but the amount that the state might collect for every school day since 2022 could be roughly $21 million (59 children x $2,000 x 180 school days). The daily accumulation of fines is the state's reading of the law, as set forth in the families' petition, and the public court papers do not show that the state has actually collected it.
"The Amish community in New York wants to be left alone to live out their faith just like they have for nearly 200 years,” said attorney Aaron Siri of law firm Siri & Glimstad, which represents the families in the case. Siri told the Post the families can only pay the fines if the state takes their land. “If New York wins, the Amish may be forced to flee the state after peacefully living there since the 1830s,” said Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty.
It is believed by the Amish families, who are represented by the attorneys of First Liberty and Siri & Glimstad, that if they lose their Supreme Court case against the State of New York that they and their Amish brethren will be forced to flee the State of New York and move to the State of Pennsylvania. It is reported that there are 95,000 Amish living in the State of Pennsylvania, which has the largest population of Amish in the entire country.
Mr. Siri said, citing sworn evidence filed in the case, that the 168 unvaccinated Amish children attending these three schools have none of the chronic health conditions common among American children. Mr. Siri stated that the State maintains that its attempt to require vaccines for school attendance is to protect public health. The law was upheld by the Second Circuit as neutral and generally applicable.
In a recent post on X, author Joe Oltmann is urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to drop the fines and to reinstate the religious exemption to vaccination that was removed in 2019. Similarly, journalist Lara Logan wrote about this case recently.
"The Amish really don’t want to be in this position,” Siri told the Post. “They don’t want to be engaging in this lawsuit in any way at all. But they’ve been left with no choice.”
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