The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8, 2025, refused an emergency request that would have allowed a New York kindergartener to attend school while his mother's religious challenge to the state's vaccination law proceeds. Justices Alito and Gorsuch dissented and said they would have granted the appeal. The mother, a practicing Catholic, argues additional vaccines violate her faith; the child has received some shots but still needs doses for polio, chickenpox and other diseases. New York eliminated religious exemptions in 2019; medical exemptions applied to 0.3% of kindergarteners last year.
Supreme Court Denies Emergency Plea For Kindergartener’s Religious Vaccine Exemption
Instructions for a Measles vaccination is seen outside of the Lubbock Public Health facility on April 9, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. The city of Lubbock has confirmed a second measles related death amidst an ongoing outbreak which began in late January. As of early April, the Texas Department of State Health Services have confirmed over 500 cases, within 22 counties, ranging from the South Plains toward the Panhandle.(Brandon Bell, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8, 2025, declined an emergency request that would have allowed a kindergartener to attend school in New York while his mother continues to challenge the state's vaccination rules.
Lower courts had found the mother was unlikely to prevail in obtaining a religious exemption and temporarily barred the child from enrolling in an Eastchester kindergarten. The Supreme Court rejected her emergency appeal; Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the stay.
The boy's mother, identified only as a practicing Catholic in court filings, says further vaccinations would violate her faith. She argued vaccines inject "biological material derived from unclean sources" and cited concerns about the mixing of human fetal cell lines and animal tissue. Her lawyers noted her religious objection was not fully formed when the child previously received some childhood immunizations.
Officials at the Eastchester Union Free School District say the 5-year-old has received some vaccines but still needs additional doses to protect against polio, chickenpox and other diseases.
Context And Legal Issues
The dispute comes amid renewed public debate over vaccinations following a measles outbreak and as public-health officials note that kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New York repealed its religious exemption for school vaccinations in 2019; medical exemptions remain in place and applied to about 0.3% of kindergarteners last year, court documents say. New York Attorney General Letitia James told the court that medical exemptions are "tightly constrained" and serve the law's goal of protecting children's health, and are therefore not comparable to broad religious exemptions.
The mother's lawyers pointed to a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that broadly protected certain parental religious claims in a case involving LGBTQ+ storybooks in schools. But that earlier decision did not persuade the justices to grant this emergency stay; the court also recently declined a different parent's request in California seeking a religious exemption to vaccination requirements.
Separately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit this year rejected a challenge to New York's vaccination rules brought by Amish parents, underscoring that courts have recently upheld the state's approach to school immunization requirements.
Bottom line: The Supreme Court declined to intervene at this emergency stage, leaving in place lower-court rulings that bar the child from attending school while the legal challenge continues.
A measles advisory is shown tacked to a bulletin board outside Gaines County Courthouse on April 9, 2025 in Seminole, Texas. A second confirmed measles-related death has been reported in the city of Lubbock amidst an ongoing outbreak which began in late January. As of early April, the Texas Department of State Health Services has confirmed more than 500 cases within 22 counties, ranging from the South Plains toward the Panhandle.(Brandon Bell, Getty Images)
Reading about immunizations at a vaccine clinic March 1, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas.(Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images)
A sign reading "measles testing" is seen as an outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, has raised concerns over its spread to other parts of the state, in Seminole, Texas, on Feb. 25, 2025.(Sebastian Rocandio, REUTERS)
Mary Bussey and Penny Noyce, both retired health care professionals, marked their faces with red dots to represent Measles during the "Stand Up for Science 2025" rally in Boston, Mass. on March 7, 2025.(Taylor Coester, REUTERS)
Matt Caldwell prepares a MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Health Department in Lubbock, Texas. on Feb. 27, 2025. Measles symptoms include fever and highly contagious respiratory symptoms.(Annie Rice, REUTERS)
A person walks past a sign at a health center where the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine is administered in Lubbock, Texas, on Feb. 27, 2025. Dozens of children are being rushed to a health center in the U.S. state of Texas to get the measles vaccine, after the recent death in the area of a child who was not immunized against the highly contagious virus. The death came as immunization rates have declined nationwide, with the latest cases in the west Texas town of Lubbock concentrated in a Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.(Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
A health worker prepares a dose of the measles vaccine at a health center in Lubbock, Texas, on February 27, 2025. Dozens of children are being rushed to a health center in the US state of Texas to get the measles vaccine, after the recent death in the area of a child who was not immunized against the highly contagious virus. The death came as immunization rates have declined nationwide, with the latest cases in the west Texas town of Lubbock concentrated in a Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.(Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Devonay Pena comforts her 13-month-old daughter, Jaqi Herrera, after Herrera received her first dose of the MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Health Department in Lubbock, Texas, Feb. 27, 2025. Pena's daycare urged their attendants to receive the vaccine after a measles outbreak in Lubbock.(Annie Rice, REUTERS)
Nina Warren, 4, gets a Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine from CMA Cassie Couch at the UnityPoint Clinic in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 7, 2025.(Zach Boyden-Holmes, The Register via USA TODAY Network)
The Ingham County Health Department held a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine clinic on April 22, 2025, at the office in Lansing, Mich.(Nick King, Lansing State Journal via USA TODAY Network)
Giving a measles, mumps, rubella vaccination at a pediatric office on Aug. 13, 2026, in Coral Gables, Florida.
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