FORT PLAIN, N.Y.—For now, it is another Wednesday at the auction in Fort Plain, New York—Amish country.
But away from the auction floor, a legal battle over New York’s school vaccination mandate is testing the boundaries of religious freedom and state authority.
The dispute is prompting some Amish families to consider whether to stay in New York or pull up stakes and leave, the plaintiffs’ attorneys say.
“It’s not like they’re making a choice—New York is making a choice,” said Hiram Sasser, an attorney with First Liberty Institute representing a group of Amish parents in the case.
“New York is making the choice that they no longer welcome the Amish.”
One Amish man at the auction, who asked to remain anonymous, said he wonders what lies ahead.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he told The Epoch Times. “I don’t know if people are going to leave, but I doubt it.
“I know there’s a lot of people that are not going to take the vaccines. I think we’ll go to jail before we do that.”
Running Into the Law
In 2022, the department fined three Amish community schools in the Mohawk Valley for violating public health law: Dygert Road School near Canajoharie, Pleasant View School in Heuvelton, and Shady Lane School in Clymer.
The schools face a combined $118,000 in penalties under New York’s school vaccination requirement.
“New York State’s Public Health Law is clear: Children attending day care and pre-K through 12th grade must receive all required doses of vaccines on the recommended schedule in order to attend or remain in school,” the New York Department of Health said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
The requirement applies to public, private, and religious schools. Medical exemptions are allowed when a child has a condition that prevents vaccination.
“Immunization is one of the most important things a parent or guardian can do to protect their child’s health,” the department said.
Sasser said the dispute is about religious freedom and the right of the Amish to make their own health decisions. The conflict has placed an intensely private religious community in the middle of a public legal battle.
In Lancaster County, which hosts the nation’s largest Amish community, 90.5 percent of kindergarteners had received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, state health data show.
Among Amish kindergarteners, the rate was estimated at about 25 percent.
In 2019, New York eliminated the religious exemption for school vaccinations after a measles outbreak involving 1,000 cases exposed gaps in vaccination coverage.
The CDC reported 48 measles outbreaks in the United States last year, with 90 of the 2,289 confirmed cases linked to outbreaks. The agency reported three deaths from measles nationwide for all of 2025.
This year, 3,471 measles cases have been reported, with 39 outbreaks.
The New York Department of Health told The Epoch Times that its responsibility is to protect public health, safeguard New Yorkers and their families, and enforce the law fairly and equitably.
“While we cannot comment on pending litigation, the department is committed to eliminating serious illness and unnecessary deaths caused by vaccine preventable diseases,” it said.
“The department continues to provide community outreach and education on the safety of immunizations.”
In 2025, the Amish vaccine case against New York state reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent it back to the Second Circuit for reconsideration.
That year, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall led a coalition of 21 states in a Supreme Court brief backing the Amish families on religious-freedom grounds.
“Parental rights really took the spotlight in 2020, when parents woke up to what some schools were teaching their kids. But the hostility of some states is reflected not just in the curriculum, but their general refusal to accommodate religion,” Marshall said in a statement.
“New York’s attack on the Amish for their religious beliefs about vaccines is disturbing and has no place in American law.”
On June 30, the Second Circuit upheld New York’s school vaccination requirement, rejecting the Amish parents’ constitutional challenge.
Sasser said no Amish families have announced plans to leave the state as they appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
“They’ve basically said it’s like they’ve been called to follow what God has told them about what they’re supposed to do on this issue,” Sasser told The Epoch Times.
“If they follow what New York says, they won’t be able to follow what they believe God has told them to do. The problem is that if you don’t do what New York says, they are going to fine you and seize your farm,” he said.
—Allan Stein
BOOKMARKS
President Donald Trump says there will be no new strikes against Iran, at least until after the midterms. “We are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said this week that there was no known evidence at this time suggesting a Russian plague researcher’s death is linked to a biological weapon. “And they’re saying it’s very much under control,” he said, referring to Russia’s government. “So we hope not.”
Russia’s health regulator said on Oct. 8 that reports of a second person falling ill following the death of a worker at a plague research lab in Siberia are not true. In a statement published by Russian news agencies, the regulator denied what it called “fake information circulating on social media.”
The Cook Political Report has shifted the projected outcome of three Senate races, including one in Kansas, toward Democrats. Take a look at Chase Smith’s latest to learn more.
Vice President JD Vance said the government will suspend Adobe and Microsoft from a program that allows foreign workers to apply for green cards and become permanent residents, citing alleged fraud. “Microsoft laid off last year 6,000 American workers,” but also brought in 6,300 H-1B workers, he said.
—Stacy Robinson
