ALBANY – Albany County Supreme Court Justice Michael Mackey denied a request on Friday for a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the religious exemption repeal pertaining to vaccinations.
The state adopted the law before it adjourned last month in the face of a measles epidemic.
Goshen civil rights attorney Michael Sussman challenged that law seeking to first have it temporarily halted.
“Justice Mackey reasoned the other courts have upheld the state’s right to order mandatory vaccinations and concluded we had not met or carried the very high burden of demonstrating substantial likelihood of ultimate success on our claims, a burden which the party seeking a TRO must meet,” Sussman said.
The attorney said the justice set a further briefing schedule and “expressed the view that if we can demonstrate the merits of our case before him or another judge, we will have time to do so before September and the extensive irreparable harm children will then suffer.”
Sussman acknowledged the decisions is not what he had hoped for, “but I recognize that getting a TRO against state legislation is very difficult.” He said, though that he hopes “further development of all the issues will cause this or another judge to preliminarily restrain the operation of this statute and I will be working on making that happen.”
