News Release
For Immediate Release: 9.29.26
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
New York Amish Again Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Their Way of Life
The Court previously returned the case to the lower court to review a decision that threatens the existence of Amish community in New York State.
Washington, D.C.—Several New York Amish individuals and schools asked the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that permits the State of New York to compel Amish schoolchildren—who attend private Amish-only schools in rural Amish communities removed from the modern world—to receive vaccinations in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs in order to attend Amish community schools.
You can read the petition here.
The law firms Siri & Glimstad; Chris Wiest, Attorney at Law, PLLC; and Lehotsky Cohn LLP, along with First Liberty Institute, represent the Amish clients.
Shannon Denmark, partner at Lehotsky Cohn said, “For decades, New York accommodated the sincerely held beliefs of the Amish. We are simply asking the Supreme Court to protect the Amish so that they can continue to live out their faith in New York.”
“The Amish desire to be left alone and practice their religion in peace, as they have done for nearly two centuries in New York,” said Aaron Siri, Managing Partner of Siri & Glimstad. “If New York wins, the Amish will be forced to flee the state.”
“The Amish community in New York wants to be left alone to live out their faith just like they have for 200 years,” said Hiram Sasser, Executive General Counsel for First Liberty.
For over 50 years, from 1966 until 2019, New York accommodated religious beliefs by granting religious exemptions from the State’s school vaccination requirements. But New York repealed its religious exemption for vaccine mandates for school children in June of 2019. Lawmakers referred to religious beliefs opposing vaccination as “fake” and “garbage.” In 2022, the State brought an enforcement action against the Amish Appellants, imposing catastrophic penalties. For religious reasons, the Amish educate their children in private Amish schools and have done so for hundreds of years and without vaccinations. The Amish lost in the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2025 we asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, and the Court sent it back to the Second Circuit with instructions to reconsider in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which held the government violated the Free Exercise rights of parents whose elementary students were forced to participate in activities contrary to their religious beliefs. But the Second Circuit said Mahmoud didn’t apply and doubled down on its prior conclusion. So we are again asking the Supreme Court to correct the Second Circuit’s errors.
This case implicates the important free exercise question of whether the State of New York can compel Amish schoolchildren living in remote Amish communities to receive vaccinations that conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs and Amish way of life.
In their petition, attorneys argue, “The seriousness of this case for the Amish in New York cannot be overstated. As explained, the Amish have a profound and sincerely held religious objection to vaccination. But New York has prohibited them from exercising that religious belief in the State. Unable to practice their faith in New York, the Amish will have no choice but to pack up and seek religious refuge elsewhere. Such ‘[f]orced migration of [a] religious minorit[y] was an evil that lay at the heart of the Religion Clauses.’”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
