West Virginia’s school year began with confusion over the state’s mandatory child immunization law, and matters are only getting worse. Consider the following:
–Governor Morrisey issued an executive order earlier this year arguing that the state’s Equal Freedom for Religion law trumps the vaccination law and thus parents can opt out of the immunization requirement for their children to enter school if they cite a religious objection.
–The state Board of Education has instructed county school systems to follow the existing law which requires proof immunization for a series of childhood diseases unless medically exempted.
–Raleigh County Judge Michael Froble has issued a temporary injunction on behalf of several families allowing them a religious exemption. The judge has scheduled a hearing on a permanent injunction for this week.
–The Raleigh County case has been merged with a case in Kanawha County where the parents of immunocompromised children have sought to prevent religious exemptions so their children will be protected from diseases.
–A Mineral County judge has denied a family’s request for a preliminary injunction in a case where a family sought recognition of a religious exemption.
–Similar lawsuits are popping up in other counties across the state. Some judges will allow exceptions for families and others will not. So, the result will still be a patchwork of conflicting decisions that will, for the moment at least, leave West Virginia with a hodgepodge of school immunization requirements from county to county.
–The West Virginia Legislature will start another regular session in January. It could well change the existing law. It came close to adding religious and philosophical exemptions during the session earlier this year. The legislature could also refine the Religious Freedom Law to make it not so broadly apply to every section of code in the state.
West Virginia desperately needs consistency on the issue, and the most logical place to find that clarity is the state Supreme Court. The Justices said in a ruling last week that it will hear the matter…eventually. It has given all sides in the pivotal Raleigh County case until mid-February to file briefs.
That means a decision is still months away.
This high court is made up of reasoned individuals, so they must have a rational basis for delaying action. However, in the meantime, more cases will be filed in local courts on each side of the issue resulting in school systems being forced to navigate the shifting landscape while parents deal with the fallout.
Public policy needs predictability to be effective. Currently, West Virginia’s immunization law, which should be viewed as the Gold Standard and not an outlier, is caught up in tangles of legal uncertainty.