Charleston, W.VA. (AP) – Two groups filed a case on Friday for an enforcement order from the Republican governor of the Western Virginia Patrick Morris, providing religious releases from the necessary school vaccinations.
The head of the US Union for Civil Freedoms in Western Virginia and the justice of Mountain State has filed a lawsuit against the State Department of Health, his Public Health Bureau and agencies on behalf of two parents in the District Court of Kanau District.
The release from the vaccine was among several executive orders issued by Morrisi at his first full day of service in January.
“Governors do not manage with a decree,” ACLU-West Virginia Aubrey Sparks said in a statement. “At the center of this case is who should make these decisions for our students. On this issue, the state constitution is clear that the body is in the legislature, not in the governor.”
The Governor’s Office and the Ministry of Health did not immediately respond to an email request for a comment on Friday in the case.
Morrisi’s order supported the school policy for vaccination, long declared by medical experts as one of the most protective in the country for children. State legislation requires children to receive varicella vaccines, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require vaccinations on Covid-19.
The legislation, which would allow religious exceptions to the vaccination requirements, among other things, was accepted by the state senate and rejected by the Chamber of Delegates earlier this year.
The State Chief of Schools Michel Blat issued a memorandum to all 55 district supervisors May 2, recommend that students be able to attend school in 2025-26 without requiring immunizations. But on the same day, the swamp canceled the note at the request of Morrisi, according to the trial.
Later, Morrisi issued a statement stating that he did not intend to cancel the enforcement order. He said parents could apply for religious release from vaccinations through the Public Health Bureau.
Last year, the republican then government. Jim justice vetoed a less extensive vaccination bill adopted by the Republican legislation of the Republican-Supremastry, which would release the private school and some unconventional students from public schools from the requirements for vaccination.
Morrisi, who has been the Prosecutor General of the Western Virginia since 2013, until he has swear as a governor, said he believes that religious releases from vaccinations must already be resolved under a 2023 law, adopted by the State Legislator called the Law on equal protection of religion. The law stipulates that the government cannot “substantiate a constitutional right to freedom of religion unless it cannot prove that there is a” convincing interest “to limit that right.
Morrisi said the law has not been fully and properly applied since it passed.
The case was filed on behalf of D Joshua Hes from Cable County and Marisa Jackson from Canaha County. It says that HES has a child who is immunocompromised and that Jackson has a child who, due to the decreased use of immunizations in the community, is more susceptible to disease.
Along with Mississippi, West Virginia is a state of the United States with the highest health results and the lowest percentages of life expectancy.
“Parents should be able to know that their child will be safe when sending them to school,” said Mountain State Safor Sarah Brown CEO. “We see the devastating effects of loosening the vaccine requirements throughout the country, and therefore the legislature reasonably refused to loosen the restrictions here in Western Virginia. It is vital that their decision not to be undermined by the executive branch.”