Parents Appeal To U.S. Supreme Court After Vermont Courts Ruled Schools Can Vaccinate Kids Against Parents’ Wishes
Vermont family whose 6-year-old son was vaccinated with an experimental Covid-19 intervention against the family’s wishes has appealed a Vermont Supreme Court ruling. The Vermont court had ruled that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP) prohibits such claims, granting immunity to school and government personnel when they mandate vaccinations.
Stunningly, the Vermont Supreme Court did not even pay lip service to the constitutional liberties implicated, ruling against traditional protections of parental rights and informed consent. But the PREP Act is not above the Constitution’s supremacy clause; it’s the other way around.
Vermont’s appalling Politella decision threatens every child in America. Other courts may rely upon its implied federal preemption of family rights and extinguishing of informed consent rights. As Ninth Circuit Judge Daniel Collins recently opined in a concurring opinion in a related ruling: The “‘right of a competent individual to refuse medical treatment’ was ‘entirely consistent with this Nation’s history and constitutional traditions,’ in light of ‘the common-law rule that forced medication was a battery, and the long legal tradition protecting the decision to refuse unwanted medical treatment.’”
Other State Rulings
This common-sense recognition of such fundamental rights has been absent from supreme courts in Wyoming and Nevada in addition to Vermont, as well as the Kansas Court of Appeals and federal courts in Kentucky and Oklahoma. A North Carolina case involving a football player vaccinated against his wishes is also making its way up the court system ladder.
Congress never intended for the PREP Act to abolish fundamental medical ethics or the legal rights of patients and parents. The PREP Act does not shield public servants from accountability for actions that have nothing to do with vaccine safety or efficacy. The Politellas did not sue a vaccine manufacturer for a harmful product; they sued school officials who inflicted very real harm.
All American children are constitutionally entitled to the protections of informed parental consent.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/27/parents-appeal-to-u-s-supreme-court-after-vermont-courts-ruled-schools-can-vaccinate-kids-against-parents-wishes/
