New York Fines Three Amish Schools $118,000 for Refusing Childhood Vaccinations

The State of New York has fined three Amish schools a total of $118,000 for refusing childhood vaccinations. The schools receive no public money. According to counsel for the families, they can pay the judgments only if the state takes their land.

Joseph Miller, Jonas Smucker, and Ezra Wengerd, all Old Order Amish, are the plaintiffs in Miller v. McDonald. They represent three community schools in Clymer, Heuvelton, and the Canajoharie settlement. The case asks whether New York may require a religious community to vaccinate its children, close its schools, or surrender land to cover penalties for refusing.

Public Health Law section 2164 requires children in any public, private, or parochial school to show proof of immunization after fourteen days of attendance. The required schedule covers measles, polio, pertussis, varicella, and other diseases, and amounts to about two dozen doses. A physician may still excuse a child if a vaccine would be medically harmful. A parent may not excuse a child on religious grounds. The legislature repealed that religious exemption on June 13, 2019, after measles spread through Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Rockland County. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill, and Governor Kathy Hochul has left it in force.

An administrative law judge, Natalie J. Bordeaux, held a hearing on May 2, 2022. As a hearing officer within the agency, she recommended no civil penalties, finding that the schools had not received adequate notice of the 2019 repeal because it had been posted only online, where the Amish could not readily access it. Fairness in hearing both sides before a ruling is a matter of truth-telling (Proverbs 18:17).

The recommendation did not end the matter. On December 15, 2022, Commissioner of Health Mary T. Bassett adopted Bordeaux’s finding of violation but rejected her recommendation of no fine. She wrote that the schools “were aware of the legal requirements” but would not comply because of “an irreconcilable conflict between their religious beliefs.” Bassett imposed penalties of $52,000 on the Dygert Road school for 26 children, $46,000 on the Pleasant View/Twin Mountain school for 23 children, and $20,000 on the Shady Lane school for 10 children, totaling $118,000. Each unvaccinated child constituted a separate violation carrying a penalty of up to $2,000.

Wengerd, who was chosen to speak for the Amish schools in New York, set out the community’s position in a handwritten letter now in the court file. He wrote that the community was “indeed grateful to the state of NY for the many privileges freedoms and protections they have blessed us with, for many years.” He then stated the religious objection: “Our Almighty God wants us to fully put our faith and trust in Him. Which is in conflict to put our trust in vaccines. We are also commanded to not be conformed to this world.” In the same administrative record, later quoted in the Supreme Court petition, Wengerd said the Amish “will choose prison time or a martyr’s death before going against their convictions.”

Aaron Siri, counsel for the families, told the New York Post on August 26 that the families could pay the penalties only if New York levied on their land. He said they would file a second Supreme Court petition in September. The Second Circuit issued a decision on June 30, and the ordinary 90-day deadline for seeking certiorari falls around September 28, 2026.

State Senator James Skoufis, a Democrat and a sponsor of the 2019 repeal, told the Senate that the religious exemption was “made up” and “fake,” because “there is no religion that objects to vaccines. Not Islam, not Catholicism, not Judaism.” Assemblyman Richard Dinowitz, a Democrat from the Bronx and the bill’s lead sponsor in the Assembly, called religious objections “utter garbage.” Both quotes come from floor speeches and are cited in the Second Circuit brief and the Supreme Court petition.

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