Connecticut Families Challenge ‘Arbitrary’ Religious Exemption Ban for School Vaccines

A 13-year-old boys receives vaccine at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut on May 13, 2021.(Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

A lawsuit filed in Connecticut Superior Court is challenging the state’s removal of the religious exemption from mandatory school vaccinations, which families say is not only absurd but also unconstitutional.

The lawsuit involves two families, with each of them having one child currently in school under previously granted vaccine exemptions and a younger child unable to register for school at all due to the new state law, which will take effect on Sept. 1 at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.

The families are seeking a court order that would allow the younger children to attend school with religious vaccine exemptions just like their older siblings, said Kevin Barry, an attorney representing the families.

“It’s arbitrary,” Barry told The Epoch Times. “Those children share the same home. They eat at the same dinner table. They play together all the time. But one of them is allowed in school and one of them is not.”

On April 27, 2021, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a Democrat-backed bill that ends his state’s religious exemption from vaccination requirements for students in grades 12 and below. The bill is designed in a way that students already enrolled in school may keep claiming the exemption for the rest of their secondary education, while those in pre-K, daycare, or new to the school may not use a religious exemption.

While the law doesn’t force children to get vaccinated, it prohibits unvaccinated children who do not qualify for a medical exemption from enrolling in school.

Connecticut is among the 21 states that have adopted a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which essentially states that the government must demonstrate a “compelling interest” to infringe the free exercise of one’s religion, and that it must use the “least restrictive” means to advance that interest.

Barry argued that the law erasing religious exemptions won’t pass the RFRA test, since religious exemptions and school vaccine mandates have co-existed in Connecticut for 60 years without causing any major outbreaks of childhood diseases, such as measles and whooping cough.

In other words, there is no compelling state interest in blocking children of religious families from attending school, which is far from being the least restrictive approach to a public health concern.

“We want to have a trial for this,” he said. “We will see if the state law is necessary. We can examine the data from Connecticut Department of Public Health to see if there was [a compelling interest]. We can see if there was a problem that needed to be fixed.”

On top of that, Barry argued that the 2021 law violates Connecticut’s own constitution, which, like those of many other states, guarantees the right to an education.

“The governor should have vetoed this bill,” the attorney said. “When the legislature does something that violates the constitution, it’s the governor’s job to veto it.”

In fact, Lamont has publicly acknowledged the state’s obligation to educate all children, regardless of their vaccination status.

“We have an obligation to provide a public education to people whether they’re vaccinated or not,” the Democrat told WCBS 880 radio on April 22, 2021, when he was asked about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for schools. Just five days later, however, he signed the bill that excludes unvaccinated children of religious families from public and private education.

“If the governor doesn’t do it, then the citizens have to go to the courts,” Barry said. “That’s where we are.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Connecticut is one of the only six states that don’t grant any school vaccine exemptions based on non-medical reasons. The other five are California, Maine, Mississippi, New York, and West Virginia.

Connecticut and Mississippi are so far the only RFRA states that don’t offer religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates.