The West Virginia Supreme Court is getting ready to set a longstanding case about school vaccinations for oral arguments.
An order entered by justices today indicates a date for oral arguments will be set later but the case is otherwise ready to be heard.
The justices also granted a motion for attorneys representing Gov. Patrick Morrisey to be allowed time to speak. Although the governor has been deeply involved with the issue, he was not one of the primary parties in the case.
The conflict focuses on whether West Virginia’s religious freedoms law passed in 2023 directly affects the longstanding mandatory vaccinations law for the public school system.
West Virginia’s compulsory vaccination law means students entering school for the first time must show proof of immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless properly medically exempted.
Governor Morrisey on Jan. 14, 2025, his first day in office, issued an executive order linking the Equal Protection for Religion Act with the vaccine law, which has no explicit religious exceptions.
The religious protections law gives citizens the right to sue if they believe their deeply held beliefs are being suppressed. But the law includes additional factors to weigh, including whether a compelling state interest exists to uphold a policy under the least restrictive means.
The Morrisey administration directed families to apply for exemptions through the state health department, but West Virginia school systems did not accept them.
The case represents an appeal of a Raleigh County circuit judge’s ruling late last year in favor of families who want the public school system to accept religious exemptions processed by the state health department.
Lawyers for the school system filed the appeal earlier this year.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has already placed a stay on lower court activity surrounding the vaccine exemptions case, meaning that a ruling by Judge Michael Froble of Raleigh County is on hold while the appeal goes forward.
The lawyers for the state school board contend that the circuit judge in Raleigh County erred in six ways, including grafting an extratextual religious exemption onto the separate vaccine law.
The lawyers go farther by saying the circuit judge “rewrote the Vaccine Law” by going farther than the Legislature ever intended.
To do so, wrote the lawyers for the state board, the circuit judge “erroneously read” the Equal Protection for Religion Act “to apply universally such that it grafts religious exemptions onto all statutes.”