Appellate panel ends challenge to student vaccination law

A challenge to a state law requiring student vaccinations was struck down by the 3rd District Court of Appeal in an opinion published Thursday.

Affirming a lower court ruling, the panel said the plaintiffs' right to education, privacy or religious freedom were not violated as a result of being required to be vaccinated. It cited Brown v. Smith, which held that laws mandating vaccinations are protected by the government's interest in ensuring health and preventing contagious disease. Brown v. Smith supra, 24, Cal. App. 5th 1135 (2018)

"Plaintiffs' arguments are strong on hyperbole and scant on authority," wrote the panel, which included Acting Presiding Justice Ronald Robie, and Justices Louis Mauro and William Murray. Love v. Department of Education, 2018 DJDAR 11622 (Cal. App. 3rd Dist., Dec. 6, 2018).

Plaintiffs' counsel Brad Hakala of Long Beach's Hakala Law Group, who argued the law infringed on the ability to refuse medical treatment and negated parental rights, said in an email he was disappointed with the ruling.

"We believe that the Court of Appeal, in issuing their opinion, failed to fully address all of the constitutional issues as set forth within our documents," he said. "The right to attend school in California is fundamental. So is the right to privacy, especially for medical records.

"This decision, if upheld, forces children and their parents to jump through tremendous obstacles before exercising their fundamental right to attend school, which would also include the necessity to disclose their confidential medical records," Hakala added.

At issue is a 2016 law, SB 277, which removed the personal belief exemption to school immunization requirements. Except in rare instances, students attending public or private schools must be vaccinated.

Placer County Superior Court Judge Charles Wachob had sustained the state's demurrer without leave to amend.

The appellate panel said the plaintiffs did not cite a cause of action as to the law violating religious freedom. It also took issue with plaintiffs citing an Illinois case that ruled school districts couldn't impose vaccincations.

Dorit Reiss, a UC Hastings College of Law professor, said no court, state or federal, has struck down school immunization mandates.

"This decision reinforces over 100 years of jurisprudence upholding school vaccine mandates, because a parent's right not to protect their children from disease is not also a right to make school less safe for other families," she said.

Defendants included the California Department of Education and California Department of Public Health.