We the Patriots USA, Inc. v. Conn. Office of Early Childhood Dev.
76 F.4th 130
2d Cir.2023Background
- In 2021 Connecticut enacted Public Act 21-6, eliminating nonmedical religious exemptions to state immunization requirements for schoolchildren, college students, and childcare participants while preserving and broadening medical exemptions and adding a "legacy" (grandfather) clause for students already holding religious exemptions in K–12.
- Plaintiffs (two advocacy organizations and three parents) sued, alleging the Act violated the Free Exercise Clause, substantive due process/privacy, Equal Protection, parental liberty/childrearing rights, and (for one parent) the IDEA; defendants were state agencies and three local school boards.
- The district court dismissed all claims (holding state agencies immune, organizational plaintiffs lacked standing, and all counts failed to state a claim); plaintiffs appealed to the Second Circuit.
- The Second Circuit affirmed dismissal of the first four constitutional counts, holding the Act is neutral and generally applicable under Employment Division v. Smith and survives rational-basis review, and rejected plaintiffs' other constitutional theories.
- The court VACATED and REMANDED the IDEA claim brought by plaintiff Elidrissi because the district court had parsed the complaint too narrowly about whether the child receives "special education" versus "special services."
- Judge Bianco concurred in part and dissented in part: he would have allowed the Free Exercise claim to proceed to fact development, arguing comparability between medical and religious exemptions is a fact-intensive inquiry inappropriate to resolve at the dismissal stage.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether repealing a longstanding religious exemption violates the Free Exercise Clause | Repeal targets religious practice and treats religious reasons worse than medical ones; strict scrutiny should apply | Act is neutral, generally applicable; repeal rationally advances public-health interests; Smith governs so rational-basis applies | Court: Act is neutral and generally applicable under Smith; rational basis review applies; Free Exercise claim dismissed |
| Whether the Act violates substantive due process/privacy/medical freedom | Parents have a liberty/privacy right to refuse vaccination for themselves/children | No fundamental right to avoid vaccination or to require public education regardless of vaccination status; Jacobson, Phillips foreclose claim | Court: No substantive due process violation; claim dismissed |
| Whether legacy provision creates an age-based Equal Protection problem | Legacy clause preserves older students' exemptions but bars younger ones, discriminating by age | Age is not a suspect class; legacy provision is rationally related to public-health goals | Court: Rational-basis review applies; legacy provision rationally related to state interest; claim dismissed |
| Whether Elidrissi stated an IDEA claim for her disabled child | Child has speech/learning disorder and receives "special services"—allegedly a "child with a disability" entitled to FAPE | Defendants: complaint shows only "special services," not IDEA "special education" for a child with a disability | Court: Complaint permissibly alleges the child is IDEA-disabled; vacated dismissal and remanded for merits proceedings |
Key Cases Cited
- Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) (state police power supports compulsory vaccination laws)
- Zucht v. King, 260 U.S. 174 (1922) (upholding school vaccination requirement)
- Employment Div., Dep't of Hum. Res. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) (neutral, generally applicable laws are subject only to rational-basis review)
- Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993) (government hostility/animosity defeats neutrality)
- Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294 (2021) (comparable secular activities must be treated similarly for Free Exercise purposes)
- Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm'n, 138 S. Ct. 1719 (2018) (evidence of governmental religious hostility invalidates action)
- Phillips v. City of New York, 775 F.3d 538 (2d Cir. 2015) (school vaccination condition does not violate Free Exercise)
- We the Patriots USA, Inc. v. Hochul, 17 F.4th 266 (2d Cir. 2021) (COVID-era vaccination rule; analysis of exemptions and data at preliminary stage)
- M.A. v. Rockland Cnty. Dep't of Health, 53 F.4th 29 (2d Cir. 2022) (fact issues precluded summary judgment on Free Exercise where exemptions and purpose were disputed)
- Cent. Rabbinical Cong. v. N.Y.C. Dep't of Health & Mental Hygiene, 763 F.3d 183 (2d Cir. 2014) (underinclusiveness can defeat general applicability)