ALBANY – Goshen civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, who is representing families who are opposed to the state’s new law banning religious exemptions for vaccinations, has filed a memorandum of law in support of a preliminary injunction pending a request for oral argument.
Sussman maintains religious hostility was the motivation for the state to eliminate the religious exemption.
“Religious hostility more than public health seem to me as I read the record here to be motivational. That’s inappropriate; the Supreme Court said that in the Baker’s case decided in 2018 out of Colorado where it clearly stated that where you have governmental or state action, cannot be tainted or affected by anti-religious hostility, and I think New York has trespassed that line and that’s why I am taking this action.”
Sussman maintains the legislature introduced the repeal measure in January, more than three months after measles appeared in Rockland County, but did not hold hearings or advance the measure until mid-June. By then, the outbreak has peaked and was receding. That sequence of events negates the state’s claim of “pressing public concerns” requiring adoption of the law.
