VACCINATIONS—Free Exercise Clause

In the Matter of the Parentage of M.S. and J. C., Docket No. 126,373 (Unpub. K. Ct. of App. 7.11.2025. J. Woltman, Johnson County District Court, affirmed). Mother objected to vaccinations for her children on religious grounds, including the Free Exercise (freedom of religion) Clause of the United States Constitution, found in its First Amendment, which is applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Fulton v. Philadelphia, 593 U.S. 522, 532 (2021); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303 (1940). Such protections are not absolute. State v. Harrison, 292 Kan. 674-75, 679, 256 P. 3d 826 (2011). While the district court may not weigh the merit of one parent’s religious belief or lack of belief against the other’s, 292 Kan. at 683, the order in this case “does no more than resolve a personal disagreement between Mother and Father consistent with the recommendation of an appropriate medical professional selected, at the court’s request, by Father.” The issue is medical, not judicial. The district court deferred the medical question to a doctor. Thus, this dispute is different than the one in Harrison. The district court order to have the children vaccinated does not contravene Mother’s due process rights. It deferred to the opinion of a private doctor chosen by father, which doctor recommended vaccination, which ultimately was carried out.