A woman prays during a rally outside the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday. Photo: Hans Pennink/AP

Attorneys fighting to overturn a new state law in New York that prohibits parents from seeking a religious exemption to vaccines for their children to attend school took another shot Wednesday at pausing the statute while students prepare to go back to classes in just a few short weeks.

They argued in Albany County Supreme Court that, if the law isn’t put on hold, their clients will be deprived of their right to an education, which is prescribed in the state Constitution.

“What we have here in terms of a preliminary injunction are very serious issues,” said Michael Sussman, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The purpose of a preliminary injunction is to maintain the status quo. We have 26,000 children who in, one, two or three weeks, are going to have nowhere to go to school.”

Attorneys Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ,left, and Michael H. Sussman talk before the hearing at the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday. Photo: Hans Pennink/AP

Albany County Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman decided not to rule from the bench on whether to enjoin the state from enforcing the law.

Sussman and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal skeptic of the safety of vaccines, are representing more than four dozen families in the lawsuit, which they filed last month in Albany County Supreme Court. They were previously denied a temporary restraining order against the state law but expect their chances of securing a preliminary injunction to be better.

Sussman argued in court Wednesday that the law, which eliminated nonmedical exemptions to vaccines for children to attend school or daycare, violated the religious freedoms of their clients and was an unnecessary course of action by the state.

He claimed, as he did in the lawsuit filed last month, that state lawmakers were motivated by hostility toward certain religious groups that sought to obtain exemptions to vaccines, rather than any threat posed to public health.

“It was a pervasive theme, and it needn’t have been,” Sussman said. “Here there was repeated references by every sponsor of the legislation in both the Assembly and the Senate in regard to religious people, whose beliefs they said were a farce … whose beliefs they said were frauds and fakes.”

State Assistant Attorney Generals, from left, Helena Lynch and Ryan Abel, and Assistant Solicitor General Jennifer Clark wait for the start of the hearing at the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday. Photo: Hans Pennink/AP

Helena Lynch, an assistant attorney general for New York, rebuffed that argument by pointing to the legislative history of the statute. The measure had been proposed by lawmakers in Albany for the last few years but didn’t gain steam until an outbreak of measles affected Rockland County and parts of New York City during the past year.

Lynch said the Legislature chose to act in response to that outbreak and that it had the power to do so under the state Constitution and what’s been determined through case law. She noted that, although there were no public hearings on the bill, lawmakers deferred to medical experts to advance the legislation.

“The actual legislative record is so clear that the motivation was public health,” Lynch said. “The Legislature is permitted to defer to the numerous medical associations that it did defer to, and it is permitted to act in a preventive fashion.”

The legislation was not an easy lift for members of the Legislature who supported it. The measure divided Democrats, particularly in the state Assembly, where it was just a few votes shy of not passing. That rarely happens in the chamber, which is led handily by Democrats.

Many of the lawmakers who voted against the measure, including Democrats, argued at the time that it could be interpreted as a First Amendment  violation.

That also turned out to be one of the leading arguments in the lawsuit from Sussman and Kennedy.

State law in New York requires compulsory school attendance for children or some other form of education, like homeschooling. Parents can be sued or charged if they’re found to be out of compliance with that part of the law, according to the lawsuit.

The new law bars parents from sending their children to school unvaccinated, unless they’ve obtained a medical exemption. That’s created a difficult situation for parents who don’t want to vaccinate their children for religious reasons, Sussman argued.

They can either go against their religious beliefs and vaccinate their children, who would then be allowed to attend school, or they can forego the vaccination and keep their child at home. The latter option would mean their child would have to be homeschooled, which isn’t possible for every family that wants to avoid vaccination.

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

“There is no exception carved out for those individuals in any way, shape or form in New York,” Sussman argued Wednesday.

Lynch argued that, if Hartman chose to grant the preliminary injunction, it could cause more complications down the line if they prevail in defending the law. If the motion is granted, children who obtain religious exemptions to vaccines would be able to attend school. That would change down the line—at any given time—if the case ends in the state’s favor.

“If the preliminary injunction is granted and the children start school in September, the likely outcome would just be that, once the injunction is lifted, they’ll just have to be pulled out of school again,” Lynch argued. “The Legislature implemented this over the summer so this would have the least impact.”

A decision from Hartman on the motion is expected in the near future to avoid any disruption that could be caused from issuing a ruling after children have started the school year.

READ MORE:

NY State Judge Denies Temporary Restraining Order Against NY Vaccines Law

Legal Challenge Filed Against NY Law Ending Religious Exemptions for Vaccines

NY Lawmakers Approve Bill to End Religious Exemptions for Vaccines