Idaho Bill Could Shatter School Vaccine Mandates

A medical freedom bill waiting to be signed into law by Idaho Gov. Brad Little might end mandatory school immunizations across the U.S. The Idaho Freedom Act (Senate Bill 1023) would prohibit businesses and schools from requiring any “medical interventions,” such as vaccines, for attendance or employment.

After being passed by both the House and Senate, the governor now has until Saturday to either veto or sign the bill. If he does nothing, it automatically becomes law.

The legislation was written by Health Freedom Defense Fund President Leslie Manookian. While she crafted the legislation in response to the oppression of medical freedom during the Covid-19 pandemic, Manookian also emphasizes its broader ramifications — that “Medical freedom should be a universal norm.”

By codifying medical freedom, the bill takes a new approach, beyond religious belief and limited personal exemption claims, in the longstanding debate over mandating vaccines.

Manookian is hoping if the bill makes it into law, it will set a national precedent and incite other states to adopt similar legislation.

Current Exemptions in 50 States

Today, all 50 states mandate many vaccines between the grades K-12 for school attendance. Parents can apply for religious exemptions in 40 states. Thirteen states, including Idaho, allow parents to opt out of vaccine mandates by claiming a personal exemption, according to the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL). Parents in Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, and Washington have to complete an educational course in order to be eligible for the personal exemption. In three states — New York, Connecticut, and Maine — parents have no means of opting out of vaccines, for private or public school, except for medical reasons approved by a doctor.

Supreme Court Ruling

Time and time again parent groups have unsuccessfully tried to overturn vaccine mandates in these states, but courts have stuck by the 1905 Supreme Court ruling Jacobson v. Massachusetts to uphold vaccine mandates. The court ruled that states can impose “reasonable regulations” to protect the public health, even when such regulations interfere with individual rights. As a result, Cambridge pastor Henning Jacobson had to pay $5 in fines for refusing to take the chicken pox shot.

Some constitutionalists and legal analysts continue to say it is high time to overturn Jacobson vs. Massachusetts. Back then, there were only one or two mandatory vaccines in existence.

Arguments against the ruling have been based on First Amendment religious belief and free speech protections, the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, and Title IX and Title VII laws prohibiting discrimination in schools and the workplace, respectively.

So far, the Supreme Court has for the most part stood clear of taking on the constitutionality of school vaccine mandates. In 2024, the Supreme Court refused without explanation to hear a Connecticut group’s challenge to the state’s elimination of its longstanding religious exemption from mandatory school vaccines.

Idaho Law

The Idaho legislation has one very effectual poster child: Doug Cameron. After the dairy farmer worker was pressured and “intimidated” into taking the Covid-19 shot as a condition of keeping his job, he found himself completely paralyzed from a blood clot attributed to the jab, he told Children’s Health Defense. The 64-year-old is now confined to a wheelchair.

Bill sponsor Rep. Rob Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend, said of Cameron, “How is it okay, someone else gets to dictate what is best for him or anyone, or dictate any of our medical choices?”

Alice Giordano’s commentaries can be heard daily on Newsweek’s Voices of The Day. She is an investigative reporter for Newsmax Magazine, covered national news for The Epoch Times, and is a former correspondent for the Associated Press and The Boston Globe.