Phillips v. City of New York

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Phillips v. City of New York
CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
ArguedJanuary 5, 2015
DecidedJanuary 7, 2015
Citation(s)775 F.3d 538
Court membership
Judge(s) sittingGerard E. Lynch, Denny Chin, Edward R. Korman
Case opinions
MajorityPer curiam

Phillips v. City of New York, 775 F.3d 538 (2nd Cir. 2015), cert. denied, 136 S. Ct. 104 (2015), was a 2015 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressing vaccination mandates and exemptions from them in New York City. The court concluded that it was within the constitutional police power of the state to mandate vaccination, and that religious exemptions were not constitutionally required.[1][2][3] Therefore, even though the state did permit religious exemptions, it was free to provide them with limitations including the exclusion of exempted children from school during an outbreak of the disease, and requiring applicants to demonstrate the sincerity of their religious objection in order to receive an exemption.

The case was later cited as precedent in upholding New York's repeal of religious exemptions in 2019,[4][5] and is noted to have contributed to the upholding of other laws including California Senate Bill 277.[6][7]

Background[edit]

The case consolidated several district court cases involving parents either seeking religious exemptions from vaccination, or seeking to permit their exempt, and therefore unvaccinated, children to attend school during an outbreak. At the trial court level, Phillips was considered to be the "first case to challenge New York's social distancing policy".[8]

Judge William F. Kuntz II "granted summary judgment for the defendants, relying heavily on an earlier decision of the Second Circuit, Caviezel v. Great Neck Public Schools".[9]

Decision[edit]

The court held that no constitutional violation occurred when unvaccinated students who were exempt from vaccination due to a religious objection were nonetheless excluded from school during a declared disease outbreak. The court further held that no constitutional violation occurred where a religious exemption was denied to an applicant whose stated reasons for seeking such an exemption were based on a personal fear of vaccines rather than an objection based on religious belief.[9][10]

Constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh wrote that Phillips "reaffirms that the government may mandate vaccinations. It may mandate vaccinations for everyone, and it can certainly mandate them for everyone who goes to public school."[11] Volokh approved of the opinion, saying that "there may indeed be a presumptive constitutional right to be free from unwanted medical treatment, but such a right can be trumped by the very strong public interest in preventing people from becoming unwitting carriers of deadly illness".[11]

In Phillips, the trial court found that one plaintiff who sought such a religious exemption was not entitled to it because her "objections to vaccinations were not based on religious beliefs".[11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wiessner, Daniel (2015-01-07). "U.S. court upholds NY state vaccination requirement for students". U.S. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  2. ^ Yang, Y. Tony; Silverman, Ross D. (2015-04-16). "Social Distancing and the Unvaccinated". New England Journal of Medicine. 372 (16). Massachusetts Medical Society: 1481–1483. doi:10.1056/nejmp1501198. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 25806793.
  3. ^ Gitter, Donna M. (2022). "First Amendment Challenges to State Vaccine Mandates: Why the U.S. Supreme Court Should Hold that the Free Exercise Clause Does not Require Religious Exemptions". SSRN Electronic Journal. Elsevier BV: 2255. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4057371. ISSN 1556-5068. S2CID 247551863.
  4. ^ "F.F. v State of New York (2019 NY Slip Op 29261)". NYCourts.gov. 2019-08-23. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  5. ^ "A Repeal of the Religious Exemption to Vaccinations — Effective Immediately". Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC. 2019-06-13. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  6. ^ Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein (2018). "A Few Hail Mary Passes: Immunization Mandate Law, SB 277, Brought To Court". Health Affairs Forefront. doi:10.1377/forefront.20180226.699777 – via www.healthaffairs.org.
  7. ^ NM v. Hebrew Academy Long Beach, 155 F. Supp. 3d 247 (United States District Court, E.D. New York. 2016) ("[C]hallenges to school administrators' enforcement of the religious exemption from PHL § 2164 have consistently been rejected by this and other courts, and in the process, have generated a body of controlling authority which is dispositive of the claims at issue here. See, e.g., Caviezel, supra, and, more recently, Phillips v. City of New York, 775 F.3d 538 (2d Cir.2015), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 104, 193 L.Ed.2d 37 (2015).").
  8. ^ Jessica L. Lentini, Note, "Social Distancing in New York Schools, 16 Rutgers J.L. & Religion (2014), p. 188.
  9. ^ a b Parmet, Wendy (February 3, 2015). "Vaccine Mandates: Second Circuit Reaffirms Their Constitutionality". Bill of Health.
  10. ^ Marie Killmond, "Why is Vaccination Different? A Comparative Analysis of Religious Exemptions", Columbia Law Review 117, no 4 (2017), p. 931-32.
  11. ^ a b c Volokh, Eugene (January 23, 2015). "Vaccination and the law". The Washington Post.
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