Current Status: Awaiting response from Defendants
- Plaintiffs filed case: August 11, 2023
- Lawsuit transferred from Sacramento County to Sonoma County: February 2024
- Defendants’ deadline to file a motion to dismiss or other responsive pleading to the Complaint: TBD
- Plaintiffs’ deadline to file an opposition to the motion to dismiss: TBD
- Defendants’ deadline to file a reply in support of the motion to dismiss: TBD
- Proposed hearing date, if the Court finds that a hearing is necessary: TBD
Background
On August 11, 2023 A Voice for Choice Advocacy’s lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of a plaintiff claiming that California’s School Vaccine Exemption laws should include the ability to opt out of vaccinations requirements if a child shows antibody levels that make them immune to a disease, and specifically that this would not require a medical exemption. Proof of antibodies through titer testing would be given to the school in lieu of vaccination records. Most other states, and other entities such as the University of California and California State University allow for titer testing in lieu of vaccination. SB 277 and CDPH’s regulations do not provide for such. The child, whose mother is the plaintiff, has had the chickenpox disease and has been vaccinated with at least one vaccine for each of the other required diseases, and has positive antibody tests for all required diseases. The child’s medical doctor wrote a medical exemption but the California Department of Health revoked it and thereby invalidated it. So while this child poses no threat to the other children at school, even if there was an outbreak of one of these diseases, by law the child is required to be vaccinated to attend school.
What makes this lawsuit different from others?
This lawsuit is the first of its kind to ensure children who are immune to disease are allowed to attend school without proof of vaccination.
A Voice for Choice Advocacy is the only organization that has been fighting SB 277 and school required vaccine mandates since 2015, both legislatively and legally. AVFCA is the only organization that has been active in the legislature educating and advocating for health rights on your behalf, year in and year out. In 2016, A Voice for Choice Advocacy was the only organization that brought forward a lawsuit against SB 277, based on parental rights, bodily autonomy and the fundamental right to education. While this lawsuit was extremely well written and argued, it was ultimately dismissed by the CA courts, due to a fear that if the judges ruled in our favor, polio would return to California! AVFCA chose not to take that case to the Supreme Court, as the judges at the time would likely not have ruled in our favor, and thereby would have set bad precedence. With the filing of this lawsuit, AVFCA is the only organization now sponsoring two active lawsuits that chip away at SB 277, as well as continuing our work in the CA Capitol to make changes legislatively.
AVFCA’s legal team on this case, led by Jonathan Nicol, is well versed in Constitutional law and SB 277. They have a history of significant wins both in lower courts and Appeals courts for individuals and corporate clients. Jonathan Nicol is also the lead attorney on the SB 277 Titer Testing lawsuit, which AVFCA is sponsoring.
What can you do to support this lawsuit?
While AVFCA’s legal team generously charges us a discounted hourly rate, this lawsuit will require hundreds of hours of their time and will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. AVFCA has taken on paying for this lawsuit because of our passion for Health Rights and Medical Freedom, as well as our desire to ensure Religious Rights when it comes to vaccine mandates. Having said that, our funding comes from our generous donors and supporters – YOU! So as AVFCA gives you this gift of a lawsuit and our expertise, with the goal of bringing Religious Exemptions to School Vaccine Mandates, we ask you to dig deeply and donate all you can to support AVFCA’s lawsuits. Thank you in advance for your dedication and support!