Supreme Court shoots down vaccine opt-outs at California school 

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court refused Friday to give religious parents an opt-out from a California school’s vaccine policy.

The justices denied their request in a brief order without explanation. There were no noted dissents.

We the Patriots, a conservative nonprofit, filed an emergency appeal at the high court on behalf of a woman identified as Jane Doe, asking the justices for an exemption to Ventura Unified School District’s vaccine mandates.

The group cited the court’s newly minted precedent in Mahmoud v. Taylor , which gave Maryland parents an opt-out whenever LGBTQ books were used in classrooms. We the Patriots claimed that the same principle applied to parents’ opposition to immunizations based on an attenuated connection to abortions.

“The First Amendment does not permit California to exile children from public school because their parents seek to raise them in accordance with their religious beliefs,” the group wrote. “That principle protects parents’ right to opt their children out of LGBTQ+ school curricula. It also protects parents’ right to opt their children out of an act that would render them complicit in abortion.”

Vaccines do not contain fetal cells. The American Academy of Pediatrics says some vaccines involve growing viruses using human cell cultures derived from two fetuses aborted in the 1960s. While those cell lines are still active, no new aborted fetuses are needed, according to the association.

Despite that scientific consensus, Jane Doe argued she was forced to choose between her son’s education and “permanently destroy[ing] his religious development.”

The Ventura Unified School District said it determined in November 2024 that a high school student didn’t meet California’s immunization requirements. His parents submitted records of homeoprophylaxis “vaccines,” a homeopathic treatment whose proponents claim prevents infectious diseases.

According to school officials, several entries on his vaccination record were questionable, with missing or inconsistent details such as batch numbers, provider names, clinic contact information and license information. Some earlier shots were given by a doctor with a history of noncompliance with state rules.

California law recognizes only vaccines approved by the federal vaccine advisory committee. Homeoprophylaxis vaccines do not qualify. After the parents refused to update the vaccine records, the student was removed from school on Jan. 7.

The parents applied for a religious exemption, but California’s legislature ended the opt-out years prior. In March, the parents submitted a disability vaccine waiver from a Texas organization; however, California requires medical exemptions from in-state providers.

School officials initiated truancy notification letters due to the student’s chronic absenteeism. According to school officials, the parents never inquired about homeschooling their son; instead, they insisted that he be reinstated at his previous in-person high school.

With the support of We the Patriots, the child’s mother filed a lawsuit in May, asking a court for an emergency order for relief. The school district argued that the group didn’t meet the standards for such action because it failed to properly serve defendants in the case.

Ventura United School District reiterated that argument before the Supreme Court, stating that the parents were requesting extraordinary remedies “on a thin paper record, without an evidentiary hearing or a developed preliminary injunction ruling.”

“That is the litigation equivalent of pulling the fire alarm and asking the building to be emptied before anyone has confirmed there is smoke,” school officials wrote.

The school argued that the lower court’s ruling on the temporary restraining order could not be appealed because of its procedural posture.

Ventura United School District warned the justices against “endorsing a theory that recasts a necessity based medical exemption as secular favoritism, stretches the holding in Mahmoud v. Taylor , a curriculum case, into the very different realm of health and safety prerequisites, and asks this court to micromanage California’s schools’ health policy on an emergency clip, without a fully developed record.”

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