By Autumn Shelton, RealWV, www.therealwv.com
Despite a Nov. 26 order by Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge Michael E. Froble that allowed religious exemptions to the state’s compulsory school vaccination law, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has issued an order of their own that essentially tells the courts to ‘hang on just a minute here.’
On Dec. 2, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia issued an order granting a stay requested by members of the West Virginia Board of Education (BOE), State Superintendent Michele Blatt, members of the Raleigh County Board of Education, Raleigh County Superintendent Serena L. Starcher and Jane Doe, by counsel, (the defendants) to halt all legal proceedings from lower courts regarding the state’s compulsory vaccination laws until a decision can be made to determine if the lower court(s) are issuing orders in excess of their legal jurisdiction.
As a result of this latest legal order, the West Virginia Board of Education has decided that, once again, they will follow state policy to not accept religious exemptions for mandatory school vaccination requirements, which currently requires children to be vaccinated against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before attending public school.
The BOE issued the following statement after the court’s order:
“In light of the West Virginia Supreme Court’s stay of the class certification order and the permanent injunction order entered in Raleigh County Circuit Court, the West Virginia Board of Education is reinstating its directive to county boards of education not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws. This directive will be in effect until the Supreme Court issues further guidance. Our priority is to ensure compliance with WV Code §16-3-4 and safeguard the health and well-being of all students across West Virginia.”
For a brief period following Judge Froble’s order, the BOE had suspended the policy on vaccination requirements, thereby allowing students with religious exemptions from the West Virginia Department of Health to attend public school. That suspended policy lasted about a week.
This latest involvement by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia comes after a series of statewide lawsuits regarding religious exemptions for school vaccination requirements and very public disagreements between state leaders, politicians and the West Virginia BOE.
The core issue, however, stems from Executive Order 7-25 issued by Governor Patrick Morrisey when he first took office in January 2025.
This executive order was intended to grant religious vaccine exemptions for public school children using the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act (EPRA), which was passed by the state’s legislature in 2023 after Senate rules were suspended rushing the bill to a floor vote, as a guidepost. EPRA forbids any government action that substantially burdens a person’s exercise of religion.
Following Morrisey’s executive order, the state’s legislature took up the governor’s proposed religious vaccine exemption policy in February through Senate Bill 460, but that bill was ultimately defeated in the House after being passed by the Senate.
At that point, the matter seemed settled, but the legal question over which triumphs in the end – an executive order or state law – was just beginning.
On June 24, Miranda Guzman, on behalf of her elementary school-aged child, filed a lawsuit in Raleigh County, asking for an injunction against the state’s vaccination law. This lawsuit was championed by Morrisey, who was in Raleigh County that day to make the announcement.
Guzman claimed that, due to religious beliefs over vaccinations, her child was excluded from public school – in violation of EPRA. Other parents joined Guzman’s lawsuit and the case was eventually assigned to Judge Froble.
Another prominent case out of Kanawha County, Hess vs. West Virginia Department of Health, seeking to stop the governor’s executive order over concerns about the impact of weakened vaccine requirements on immunocompromised students, was filed in May, prior to Guzman’s Raleigh County suit.
This case was dismissed in July over a “technicality,” but was refiled in August and ultimately consolidated with the Raleigh County case under Judge Froble, despite objections from attorneys with the ACLU-WV and Mountain State Justice.
In September, it was time for trial.
Following courtroom testimony from various experts over the course of four days in September and October, Judge Froble decided that the no-religious exemption policy was in violation of the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act. Judge Froble issued a permanent injunction and ordered that plaintiffs in the Guzman suit, as well as those included in a class (any family who seeks religious exemptions for public school attendance), shall not be prevented “from enrolling in school, attending school, or participating in extracurricular sports because of their vaccination status.”
So, that settled that. But, hang on just a minute here . . .
Similar religious exemption cases have been introduced in Mineral County and Berkeley County, however, courts in those jurisdictions have ruled in favor of the current school vaccination law. So, can one circuit judge make a statewide decision that other judges have ruled against? And, what about the executive order and the Equal Protection for Religion Act? And what about West Virginia State Code?
According to court documents, there are approximately 570 students in the state of West Virginia who have received religious exemptions from compulsory vaccinations. At this moment, the fate of those religious exemptions is in the hands of the state’s highest court.
RealWV will provide updates from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals as they become available.
