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A California mom says the state is forcing her to choose between her Christian faith and her son’s education, and she’s asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in.
The emergency application, filed Sept. 11 and formally docketed Friday, was submitted to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency matters from the 9th Circuit.
Kagan could decide on her own or refer the case to the full court, a move that could make the mother’s fight a national test case over faith and vaccines in a majority conservative bench.
The filing, brought by We the Patriots USA, Inc. and “Jane Doe,” contends that California’s health code unconstitutionally bars her son from attending school unless he receives vaccines she considers religiously objectionable.
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Doe argues the vaccines are linked to abortion through aborted fetal tissue used in development and testing and that her faith compels her to keep her and her son’s bodies pure as “the temple of the Holy Spirit.”
According to the application, her son had attended public school under a personal beliefs exemption until California had phased those out. When she pursued alternative immunization methods, Ventura Unified School District initially accepted them, only to later reject them and bar her son from classes in January.
In May, prosecutors issued Doe a criminal citation for truancy, though the case was later dropped. Once an honor roll student, her son is now failing academically, according to the filing, and struggles socially after being kept out of school for months.
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Doe’s attorneys argue the law violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, pointing to recent precedent that recognizes parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious upbringing. They contend California permits medical exemptions that pose the same public health risks as religious exemptions would, making the law discriminatory against people of faith.
“The First Amendment does not permit California to exile children from public school because their parents seek to raise them in accordance with their religious beliefs,” the filing states.
The brief warns that, without relief, the unnamed teen risks missing his education entirely or being forced to choose between “obeying God and sacrificing their children’s futures, or caving to the state and sacrificing their souls and their children’s sanctity.”
Justice Kagan may call for a response from California officials or refer the application to the full court for consideration. The mother is asking the justices to issue an injunction allowing her son to return to school while the broader case plays out in the lower courts.
Her lawyers also warn that unless the court steps in, families like hers may be forced to “literally flee California” to practice their faith, something the brief says the First Amendment was designed to prevent.
The case comes amid ongoing national debates over vaccine mandates, religious liberty and parental rights under the Trump administration.
The filing follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which strengthened protections for parents directing their children’s religious upbringing.
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