Connecticut's top court upholds ban on religious exemptions

(The Center Square) — Connecticut's highest court has rejected another legal challenge to the state's pandemic-era law repealing religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements.

Connecticut's Supreme Court ruling rejected several claims by the plaintiffs in the case, who argued that the state's 2021 move to eliminate religious exemptions violated the state and U.S. constitutions. However, justices agreed to sustain claims that the law violates Connecticut’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, sending the issue back to a lower court to decide.

Plaintiffs in the case, Keira Spillane and Anna Kehle are parents of young children who objected to the state's vaccination requirements, arguing that it violates their religious beliefs and includes vaccines made from cell lines derived from aborted fetal tissue.

“Our case has always centered around Connecticut’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act and our firm belief that the removal of the religious exemption is in clear violation thereof," Lindy Urso, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

"But make no mistake, this decision is a victory for our plaintiffs and a victory for religious freedom in Connecticut and we look forward to pressing ahead with our injunction motion so that we can get these disenfranchised children back to school while we await our trial," he added.

The ruling is the latest challenge to Connecticut's 2021 law, which eliminated religious exemptions for students required to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school. So far, none have been successful in overturning the law.

Attorney General William Tong praised the court's decision but vowed to "aggressively defend the state’s necessary and lawful actions to protect public health" as the court takes up the final issues in the legal challenge.

"Vaccines save lives, school vaccine requirements remain in effect, and we are very confident in our position," Tong, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The state still allows medical exemptions for vaccines, and kindergarten through 12th-grade students who had already received such exemptions were "grandfathered" under the law.

That left preschool and other early education schools without similar accommodations for religious exemptions, already granted, which the critics have argued in court challenges was unfair.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a federal lawsuit filed by parents and conservative groups that argued that the state violated their First Amendment rights by approving a bill that eliminated the option for Connecticut families to request a religious exemption. Lower courts had rejected the claims, but the plaintiffs, We the Patriots USA, Inc., petitioned the high court to take up the case.

A three-panel federal appellate court's majority previously ruled that the Connecticut law contained "no trace" of hostility toward religious believers and did not violate objectors' constitutional rights to due process and the free exercise of religion.

At least other states — California, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia — have also done away with religious exemptions.