Miller v. McDonald

In Miller v. McDonald, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied a religious right to the Amish from mandatory vaccination, and imposed whopping fines totaling $118,000 on small Amish schools. The background was this:

“

... the legislature repealed the religious beliefs exemption while retaining the medical exemption. Plaintiffs-Appellants are three "Amish community schools"—Dygert Road School, Pleasant View School a/k/a Twin Mountain School, and Shady Lane School—that have been fined for failing to comply with New York's immunization law; Ezra Wengerd, an elected representative of all Amish schools in New York; and Jonas Smucker and Joe Miller, board members of their children's Amish community schools (collectively, "Plaintiffs"). The schools do not require a certificate of immunization to attend because the parents "have sincerely held religious beliefs which do not permit them to inject" their children with vaccines.

”

Miller v. McDonald, 130 F.4th 258, 262 (2d Cir. 2025).

The Second Circuit then held:

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Plaintiffs brought a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Defendant-Appellee Dr. James V. McDonald, in his official capacity as the Commissioner of Health of the State of New York ("the State"), alleging that the immunization law infringes on their free exercise rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The parents also argue that the law is unconstitutional because it impairs Amish parents' right to control the religious upbringing of their children as recognized in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S. Ct. 1526, 32 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1972). Plaintiffs moved to preliminarily enjoin the law's enforcement against them; the State moved to dismiss. Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford granted the State's motion to dismiss, concluding that Plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege a constitutional violation. The court denied Plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction as moot. We affirm.

”

Miller v. McDonald, 130 F.4th 258, 262 (2d Cir. 2025).

The enormous fines on the small schools were assessed as follows:

“

Each violation of § 2164 is subject to a fine of up to $2,000. The DOH considers each day that an unvaccinated student attends school to be a violation. The Commissioner of Health concluded the total fines were "principled and conservative under the circumstances." J.A. 127. More specifically, the Commissioner of Health's order imposed a $52,000 fine against Dygert Road School, a $46,000 fine against Twin Mountains School, and a $20,000 fine against Shady Lane School. To calculate the fines against Dygert Road and Twin Mountains, the DOH multiplied the number of out-of-compliance students in each school by the maximum penalty (under the modest assumption that each of those students was out of compliance for only one day). Because Shady Lane provided no documentation for its students, the DOH assumed that one student was not compliant for at least ten days.

”

Miller v. McDonald, 130 F.4th 258, 263 n.9 (2d Cir. 2025).