Todd Kirby, a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, spoke on February 27, 2023 to support the adopted “Equal Protection for Religion Act”. Formergov. Jim Justice signed legislation into the law this year. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
The judge County Circuit Richter in Raleigh County commissioned the legality of Governor Patrick Morrisey’s vaccination exemption mandate, who was previously used for religious freedom with the governor as a reason for the governor for the command.
On Tuesday, Morrisey organized a press conference in Beckley, West Virginia to announce that a mother had Submitted a lawsuit Against Raleigh County and State Board of Education after the State School Board recently announced It would not recognize The governor’s executive regulations enable religious exceptions to school immunizations.
The Republican governor says 2023 Bill Known as the “equal protection for religion act” according to the legislator of the members of the house of the delegates killed an invoice That would have brought religious exceptions for vaccinations in child law in state law.
The lawsuit was assigned to the judge of the Raleigh County Circuit Court, Todd Kirby, who was vehemently used for the law on religious freedom as a Republican in the House of Delegated.
Kirby joined 10 other Republicans to sponsor the broad calculation says NO State measures can significantly burden the exercise of religion by a person, unless this is of vital importance for a convincing interest of the government.
While speaking in the house The soil, said Kirby, that the government – in his view, had violated the religious rights of the residents, including lessons in classrooms. After the Covid 19 pandemic, he also quoted the vaccine requirements as an example.
“For people who have trained very well about the effects of vaccines, both the side effects and the advantages said during the Bill debate.
Kirby, who has been a judge since 2024, did not respond to an e -mail for this story with questions whether he was getting back from the case.
Senator Joey Garcia, D-Marion, who was in the house in 2023, said during the Bill debate that it would be used to weaken the strict laws on the immunization law on childhood in West Virginia. The state was only a handful that did not allow religious exceptions to the school vaccination requirements.
“I have a lot of respect for Richter Kirby, and I assume that he will give himself back. It is less a question. I assume that he will do so because this is the only thing you can do in this kind of situation in which he chose a few years ago for the underlying invoice and is advocated for the underlying invoice,” said Garcia on Tuesday.
Garcia said that there are precedent that other judges who acted as legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate withdrew themselves when the case analysis concerned legislation that they had voted on.
As a legislature, Kirby was also a common A 2024 Bill This would have removed the requirements for the immunization of childhood for private and parochial schools. The draft law passed the house and the Senate, but the former governor Jim Justice veto lodged legislationCiting child health problems.
The West Virginia Democratic Party has also asked Kirby to get out of the case.
“Judge Todd Kirby should prevent this case from hearing. As a former member of West Virginia’s delegate house, he gave a vote and spoke in favor of the so-called” Religious Freedom Reduction Act “legislation, which is of central importance for the legal arguments before him.
“West Virginians have the right to expect an impartial hearing when it comes to affairs that affect the health and security of their children. Richter Kirby’s continued participation in this case would violate this principle,” he continued.
Garcia said he voted against the draft law on religious freedom in 2023 because I thought that the potential was that someone would try to operate the law as a weapon to put down the other laws we had for public security. “
“I think governor Morrisey tried so aggressively to change the lawPresent And unfortunately he loses these fights and I think he will lose, ”he said.
The lawsuit was submitted on behalf of Miranda Guzman in front of the Raleigh County Circuit Court, whose Kind AG was issued for the mandate of the Ministry of Health of the School vaccination pit for religious beliefs.
According to the State Ministry of Health, more than 100 families have asked to operate religious liberation in order to bypass the vaccination requirements in the coming school year.
According to Morrisey, the law on religious freedom will replace the current mandatory school vaccine requirements.
“In my view, and I think the view of many, many people applies to the topic of religious exceptions for vaccines,” he said. “And this law of 2023 was adopted about one of the contradictory laws.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and the Justice of Mountain State Submitted a mandamus letter In the Kanawha County Circuit Court on behalf of two parents of immunocomitors. This lawsuit an attempt to force the state’s Ministry of Health and the state’s public health in order not to comply with the order of the executive.
Kirby, a lawyer, served in the Delegate House in 2022. He resigned from his seat in 2024 after the judiciary appointed Kirby serve in the 10th group. Kirby won his judicial two And serves an eight -year term that started on January 1.
Note from the publisher: This story has been updated to report that the lawsuit was also submitted against the West Virginia Board of Education.
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