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Judge Michael E. Froble ruled Thursday the county must allow the children of families suing the county to attend school without vaccinations while their case continues.
The ruling upholds an executive order issued by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in January, granting religious and philosophical exemptions to the state school vaccination requirements.
Current state law says children must be vaccinated for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before beginning school. A bill seeking to modify those requirements did not pass the West Virginia Legislature this year, casting doubt on the legal basis for Morrisey’s executive order and religious exemptions.
In June, the state Board of Education voted unanimously to direct Superintendent Michele Blatt to advise schools to follow current vaccination requirements without religious exemptions.
Soon after, Raleigh County mother Miranda Guzman sued the West Virginia and Raleigh County boards of education, arguing that their denial of religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements infringed upon her child’s religious freedom. Two more plaintiffs, Amanda Tulley and Carley Hunter, have since joined the suit.
In a press release, Morrisey applauded the decision as a step forward in the administration’s effort to defend religious liberty.
“No family should be forced to choose between their faith and their children’s education, which is exactly what the unelected bureaucrats on the state Board of Education are attempting to force West Virginians to do,” Morrisey said. “My administration will continue to grant religious exemptions to compulsory vaccine requirements and uphold West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act until this case is fully settled.”
Morrisey has defended his executive order on the basis of the Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023, arguing that when interpreted alongside the state’s current vaccine policy, religious liberties must be upheld and religious exemptions should be granted.
The West Virginia Board of Education released its own statement, expressing disappointment in the ruling and promising further action from the board in the near future.
“This injunction is limited in scope and applies only to those named in this lawsuit. It will have no impact on other students in Raleigh County or throughout the state,” the statement said. “As students prepare for the upcoming school year, families are encouraged to comply with West Virginia’s compulsory vaccination laws (W. Va. Code § 16-3-4) as required by legislative statute.”
West Virginia Families for Immunizations (WVFI), a statewide grassroots organization focused on advocating for the protection and preservation of the state’s immunization policies, attended the preliminary injunction hearing “to ensure pro-vaccine messages are heard.” After the ruling, the group issued its own statement expressing disappointment in what they saw as a weakening of the state’s protection from preventable diseases just before the start of a new school year.
“West Virginia has a proud track record of maintaining high vaccination rates, and the longstanding law that allows only medical exemptions for school required vaccines plays a role in that success,” the WVFI statement said. “For students and teachers who have legitimate medical reasons to forgo vaccination, their lives are now at risk as we see the resurgence of diseases once thought eliminated. We applaud the Board of Education for their strong stance on this issue, and we will continue to work to support them going forward.”
Jesse Ice, co-director of WVFI said the case has a long way to go.
“This was just an early, early injunction, and it applies specifically to the plaintiffs in the case, those who are suing Raleigh County and the Department of Education,” she said. “The state Board of Education is doing what’s right. They’re standing up for the health and safety of West Virginia kids.”
Ice said the issue of vaccines has become politicized, in spite of popular support.
“We don’t see this as partisan in any way. It’s simply a matter of public health,” she said. “You see a lot of anti-vax rhetoric that’s coming out in state houses, really, across the country, and at the federal level. I think that it gets so much attention because it’s very loud. But when you look at the numbers and even public opinion, the majority of West Virginians and people across the country, they believe in science. They believe in the power of immunizations. And in West Virginia, the majority of folks want our laws to stay the same.”
As cases of measles have reached numbers not seen in decades, Ice said West Virginia is a testament to the power of strong immunization laws. She said immunizing children is a way to protect entire communities, something the Guzman case argues against.
“I think the CDC said that this year, 2025, has been one of the highest for recorded cases of measles in recent years,” Ice said. “But West Virginia hasn’t had any, and that is the testament to the power of our strong laws.”
Ahead of Thursday’s ruling, a group of medical and community health organizations – including the West Virginia Nurses Association and the West Virginia State Medical Association – issued a statement thanking the state legislature and the West Virginia Board of Education for following state code and for maintaining an immunization policy that does not allow non-medical exemptions.
“We jointly issue this statement to underscore the importance of maintaining high rates of routine childhood immunizations, especially in our school and childcare settings where children spend the majority of their
days in close contact with many other students, teachers, coaches, and others,” the statement read.
The preliminary injunction in Raleigh County comes just a day after a judge in Kanawha County dismissed a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) and Mountain State Justice on behalf of two parents asking the court to stop state education officials from enforcing the executive order.
“Yesterday’s dismissal was on procedural grounds and did not get to the merits of our case,” Billy Wolfe, ACLU-WV communications director said via email. “ACLU-WV remains steadfast that governors cannot be allowed to legislate by decree, and we will continue to be involved in this issue.”