Children's Health Defense West Virginia officials asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a ruling allowing religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates. Attorneys for the state’s board of education said the ruling puts public health at risk. Gov. Patrick Morrissey said he was “disappointed” the board chose to challenge the decision “rather than stand up for the religious freedoms of our students and families.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a statement to The Defender that he was “disappointed” the board chose to challenge the decision “rather than stand up for the religious freedoms of our students and families.”
In a brief filed Thursday with the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, attorneys argued the lower court didn’t just misinterpret the state’s law, but rewrote it.
“The Vaccine Law works,” attorneys wrote, pointing to the state’s high immunization rates and low levels of vaccine-preventable disease. “The Legislature has repeatedly considered adding religious exemptions to the Vaccine Law. It hasn’t.”
Attorneys framed the case around real-world consequences. They cited recent measles outbreaks in multiple states and warned that loosening West Virginia’s long-standing vaccine rules could invite similar problems.
“A disease once deemed eliminated in the United States has reawakened,” they wrote. While they acknowledged that measles hasn’t taken hold in West Virginia, “this case threatens to change that,” they said.
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