Signs about measles and the measles vaccine are displayed at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, N.Y., in March. The county in New York City's northern suburbs declared a local state of emergency over a measles outbreak that has infected more than 150 people since last fall, hoping a ban against unvaccinated children in public places wakes their parents to the seriousness of the problem. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

After New York state lawmakers approved legislation last month to remove the option for parents to forgo vaccinating their children on religious grounds, a group of families filed a lawsuit Wednesday aimed at reversing the measure.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has previously expressed public skepticism about the safety of vaccines, is one of two attorneys representing the families in the litigation.

He stood with the other attorney, Michael Sussman from Orange County, after filing the lawsuit in Albany County Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon. Sussman argued that the new law infringes on the constitutionally provided religious freedom of the plaintiffs.

“What's at stake here in New York is of profound importance to the entire nation,” Sussman said. “Without religious liberty, which is a bedrock principle of our country, we flounder and we violate critical rights of thousands and thousands of people in this state.”

Sussman said a decision could come down by Friday on a temporary restraining order, which would preclude the state indefinitely from enforcing the law. They're planning to pursue a preliminary injunction against the statute, regardless of that initial decision.

The legislation at issue had actually been kicked around the state Legislature for the last few years, but gained momentum in recent months after a large outbreak of measles affected Rockland County and parts of New York City. Lawmakers approved it in June, after which it was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Kennedy and Sussman argued in the lawsuit that the state already had a course of action for addressing such an outbreak before the bill passed, but had decided not to follow it.

It started with a handful of cases of measles in Rockland County in September of last year, which had grown into hundreds months later. State law, according to the complaint, allows state and local health officials to quarantine individuals with a contagious disease and clean areas they might have been. That didn't happen in this case, the suit claimed.

At the same time, the complaint argued, the state Commissioner of Health didn't promulgate any directive or order that would have prevented unvaccinated children from attending school or day care in New York.

“The systems in place were not used. That's the deficiency,” Sussman said. “If you have a system that says we can isolate or quarantine people who have measles and you don't do it for seven months while this outbreak is continuing, and then you say our policies don't work, we need a total repeal—you're disingenuous.”

Because of that, the lawsuit argued, state lawmakers couldn't have known if the bill was necessary since state and local officials hadn't used the tools already at their disposal.

That's the crux of the second part of the argument put forward by Sussman and Kennedy. They wrote in the lawsuit that lawmakers had essentially not done their due diligence in preparing the legislation and advocating for its passage this year. No hearings were held on the bill, they noted.

They also claimed the Legislature didn't have any research or data to support why the bill was necessary, such as the proportion of unvaccinated individuals that hold religious exemptions, and the “actual risk, if any,” posed to vaccinated individuals by those who aren't vaccinated. Lawmakers had pointed to the rising number of measles cases to support the measure.

There's also a series of unanswered questions lawmakers didn't provide for in the legislation, the lawsuit claimed. Parents who still choose to forgo vaccinating their children weren't told what to do in regards to their education, for example. There's no directive for the state Education Department to handle those children, the suit argued.

That contradicts a section of state law that requires compulsory school attendance for children, or some other form of education, which parents can be sued or charged over if found out of compliance, according to the complaint.

That puts parents in a difficult situation, the lawsuit argued. Either they have to vaccinate their children, which they claim to be against their religious beliefs, or they have to find another way to educate them. That could mean home schooling, which isn't feasible for all parents.

“The challenged action is causing plaintiffs irreparable harm by forcing them to find ways to home school their children which will undeniably require additional expenditures on childcare, disrupt their careers and impose financial strains on many families,” the complaint said.

It could also mean pulling their children out of religious schools, the complaint said. The law precludes children from attending school without state-mandated vaccines, regardless of whether the institution is public, private, or parochial. Medical exemptions to vaccines are still allowed.

“Their parents are not all positioned to home-school them. In the Jewish community, not everyone can home-school their child. It doesn't work that way,” Sussman said. “They are dictated to go to a yeshiva, that's part of their religious inculcation.”

The defendants in the lawsuit are the state of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office will defend against the statute in court. They're expected to file papers opposing the temporary restraining order in the coming days.

Cuomo's counsel, Alphonso David, has previously said his office was confident the bill would survive a legal challenge, and lawmakers who sponsored the bill have pointed to previous cases where laws mandating vaccines were upheld.

The plaintiffs in the case are 55 families from New York state with children who've previously been granted religious exemptions for vaccines, and were able to attend school, day care, or camp. The new law will prevent them from doing that, they've claimed.

They're seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional by the court, on grounds of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and part of New York state law that guarantees religious freedom.

Kennedy became involved in the litigation because of his position as chief counsel for Children's Health Defense, a group that claims vaccines have the potential to harm children. He and Sussman hinted that other lawsuits may emerge against the law, aimed at striking it down from a different legal angle. As of Wednesday, those hadn't been filed.

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