Fourth Circuit sides with West Virginia in religious challenge to vaccine mandates [View all]

Source: Courthouse News Service

April 8, 2026


RICHMOND, Va. (CN) —A Fourth Circuit panel rejected a West Virginia family’s religious challenge to school vaccine requirements on Wednesday, determining that the state law serves the public interest.

“We live in a society that accords its citizens enormous benefits. In return, states can, in a measured way, require certain exactions and accommodations to the broader social interest,” U.S. Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote for the majority. “West Virginia’s compulsory vaccination law does exactly that. It is a legitimate exercise of the state’s power to protect the health and well-being of school children.”

West Virginia is one of only five states that prohibit religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates. Krystle and Anthony Perry, suing individually and on behalf of their elementary school-aged child, argued the policy violates their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion, claiming it requires them to use vaccines that scientists researched, tested and developed through the use of aborted fetal cells.

Joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Agee, a George W. Bush appointee, Wilkinson ruled that a lower court erred in granting Perry’s preliminary injunction allowing their daughter to reenroll in Virtual Academy, an online public school. The suit asked judges to balance constitutionally protected religious rights with the power of states to protect public health — and specifically, to protect school-aged children from communicable diseases.

Read more: https://courthousenews.com/fourth-circuit-sides-with-west-virginia-in-religious-challenge-to-vaccine-mandates/