WASHINGTON – Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, Siri & Glimstad, and the Chris Wiest Law Firm on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of West Virginia parents whose daughter was kicked out of a virtual public school because the family declined vaccines for religious reasons.
West Virginia law requires students who attend public or private schools to be vaccinated but exempts students who are homeschooled or attend microschools or learning pods. Krystle and Anthony Perry—who have declined vaccinations for their daughter for sincerely held religious reasons, including that some vaccines are made with aborted fetal body parts—sought a similar exemption for her to attend virtual public school from home. Local school officials, however, denied their request and disenrolled their daughter.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected the Perrys’ First Amendment claim to freely exercise their religious beliefs, prompting the attorneys to ask the Supreme Court to take the parents’ case and vindicate their constitutional rights.
“Our country was founded on the promise that people of faith should be free to exercise their deeply held beliefs, and government officials have no business discriminating against religious families,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “It makes no sense to deny an exception to a student attending virtual school—in the privacy of her own home—while exempting all students who are homeschooled or attend microschools. We are urging the court to hear the Perrys’ case and vindicate the Constitution’s free-exercise guarantee.”
The petition filed in Perry v. Marteney explains that without the Supreme Court’s review of the Fourth Circuit’s erroneous decision, “governments will be emboldened to engage in all kinds of religious discrimination.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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