The children in question were Amish, and the schools in question were Amish-run schools. Previously, New York provided a religious exemption, but that ended in 2019. The Amish in turn rejected the requirement to make sure their students were vaccinated. This led to three schools racking up fines that totaled $118,000.
Fast forward to this past March, when the three schools in question lost a federal court appeal. That left the Supreme Court as the remaining option for further appeal.
So the Amish decided to petition the Supreme Court to hear their case, asking them “to rule that the First Amendment supersedes a state law requiring that school children be vaccinated.”
Will the case be heard?
The Supreme Court hears about 80 cases each term. It must decide each year which of the many cases it will give its attention to.
As of the end of June, the court had already decided to hear 32 cases, before adjourning for summer break. It appears that as of now, no cases have been added since.
This is the time of year when they are making their final decisions on which cases to hear in the upcoming term. Decisions are apparently usually made at the latest by September, as the term begins in October.
They would need four justices to vote in favor of hearing the dispute for the case to move forward.
A “Quite Rare” Showing From State Attorneys General
Enter nearly two-dozen state attorneys general on the side of the Amish. A total of 22 of them, to be precise, have submitted briefs in support of the Amish position.
And having 22 state attorneys general is apparently a very big number for this sort of thing. From the report at publichealthpolicyjournal.com: ....