Vaccination

The Second Circuit has held that it is within the State's police power to require children to be vaccinated in order to attend public school and that such a requirement does not violate the First Amendment or other constitutional rights.

Citing Supreme Court precedent, the Second Circuit held that the right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill
health or death.

The Second Circuit further held that the Supreme Court had held in 1905 that a compulsory vaccination law was not a violation of substantive due process.

The Court also held that the plaintiffs had not made a showing of any violation of the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.

Finally, the Court held that the Ninth Amendment was not a source of individual rights, and, accordingly, the plaintiffs claim under that amendment could not stand.

The decision is Phillips v. City of New York can be found here.