Conservative organizations file briefs in support of WV families challenging school vaccine mandates

by Lori Kersey, West Virginia Watch
May 15, 2026

Conservative organizations — including one that helped with the West Virginia Legislature’s passage of a 2023 religious freedom law — have filed briefs arguing the law does in fact add religious exemptions to the state’s strict school vaccine mandates.

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation are among the organizations that have filed amicus briefs in the case of M. Guzman and C. Hunter v. the West Virginia Board of Education, which is before the state Supreme Court of Appeals.

Amicus briefs are arguments filed by entities that are not party to a particular case but have a strong interest in its outcome.

Raleigh County parents Guzman and Hunter are asking the high court to uphold a November Raleigh County Circuit ruling that required schools to allow children admission with a religious or philosophical objection to the state’s school vaccination requirements.

Judge Michael Froble ruled that the West Virginia and Raleigh County school boards’ policy not to accept religious exemptions is a violation of the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023.

States generally require school students to be vaccinated against a series of infectious diseases, like polio, chickenpox and measles. West Virginia is one of only five states with laws that do not allow families to opt out of the requirements based on their religious objections to the shots.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order his first day in office requiring the state to allow religious exemptions based on the state’s 2023 Equal Protection for Religion act.

In its amicus brief, conservative legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom wrote that it supported the passage of the Equal Protection for Religion Act, which former Gov. Jim Justice signed into law in 2023.

“ADF and its associated entities also draft and support legislation designed to prevent government actors from burdening religious exercise or treating religious conduct less favorably than non-religious conduct,” the organization wrote. “As relevant here, ADF supported the enactment of West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act, the statute central to the disposition of this appeal.”

EPRA’s lead sponsor, Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, said through a House of Representatives spokeswoman Friday that ADF did not draft the legislation, but the organization provided guidance to Pinson related to the bill.

The Alliance Defending Freedom and other groups argue that EPRA applies to the school vaccine law and that the vaccine policy should have religious exemptions.

“The Equal Protection for Religion Act places firm limits on all ‘state action’ that substantially burdens religious exercise or treats religious conduct more restrictively than comparable non-religious conduct,” the Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in its brief. “All ‘state action’ means anything done by, or fairly attributable to, any arm of the government of the State of West Virginia, its political subdivisions, and those entities’ officials.

“Yet Appellants maintain that their enforcement of vaccine requirements is not subject to the EPRA’s requirements. That’s wrong,” they wrote.

The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It helped author Project 2025, a set of far-right conservative priorities that has served as a blueprint for many of President Donald Trump’s policies during his second term.

“This case presents the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia’s first opportunity to interpret the Equal Protection for Religion Act,” the Heritage Foundation wrote in the brief filed this week. “How it uses this opportunity will determine whether the law means something or nothing at all.”

The organization argues that the West Virginia Equal Protection for Religion Act is designed to create religious exemptions to all non-excepted state law, including the vaccine requirements.

The Equal Protection for Religion Act, like the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act that it’s based on, is a “super statute” that displaces other laws and requires that laws have religious exemptions, they write.

The state and Raleigh County school boards officially filed their appeal to the Supreme Court in March.  

Earlier this week, attorneys for the two Raleigh County families filed their response to the school boards’ argument.

In it, attorneys for the family said E.G., one of the children in the case, is a 17-year-old who lacks only one vaccine — a booster for the meningococcal vaccine required for high school seniors.

“Plaintiff Hunter did not previously have religious objections to vaccinating E.G.,” the attorneys write. “However, after a period of thoughtful prayer and scripture reading, Mrs. Hunter’s religious objections to vaccinating E.G. were cemented after she concluded vaccinating E.G. would be ‘spiritually impure.’”

The attorneys argue that the families’ religious beliefs and practices have been “substantially burdened” by the vaccine policy.

They also argue that state schools do not mandate that teachers and other adults working in the school system be vaccinated, despite working closely with children, and that the schools do not mandate vaccination for events like athletic games or for homeschooling families, microschools or learning pods.

Besides the conservative organizations, Morrisey has supported the families in an amicus brief filed this week.

The school board will have until June 1 to write a reply to the families’ argument.

After June 1, the Supreme Court may decide the case on its merits or schedule oral arguments in the case.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.