Connecticut Judge Dismisses Final Challenge to State's Vaccine Exemption Law
A Connecticut Superior Court judge in Stamford dismissed the last remaining claim on September 15 in Spillane v. Lamont, a lawsuit two mothers from Orange and Greenwich filed in 2022 after the state eliminated religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements in 2021. The mothers argued the repeal violated the state and federal constitutions and Connecticut's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The state Supreme Court had already dismissed five of their six claims in 2024, sending only the state RFRA claim back for further review, and the legislature this year passed the first carveout to that law specifically for school vaccine requirements.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the ruling affirms that the state's commonsense school vaccine requirements are lifesaving and lawful. Plaintiffs' attorney Lindy Urso said lawmakers changed the rules in the middle of the case by carving vaccine requirements out of the state's religious freedom law after the lawsuit was already filed. Connecticut is one of only a handful of states that do not allow a religious exemption from school vaccine mandates.
