Supreme Court declines religious vaccine exemption bid

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by a Catholic mother from New York seeking a religious exemption for her son to attend public kindergarten without required vaccinations. The court did not provide an explanation for its decision, which is standard for rulings made on its emergency docket.

New York is one of four states—alongside California, Connecticut, and Maine—that only permit medical exemptions for school vaccine requirements. In court filings, the petitioner argued that her religious beliefs prohibit vaccination because she believes it involves injecting biological material derived from unclean sources into the bloodstream.

While some vaccines utilize cell lines derived from fetal tissue from the mid-20th century for virus cultivation, the vaccines themselves do not contain fetal cells. The decision maintains the current enforcement of New York's mandate, which requires specific immunizations for students to attend public schools.