{"id":121767,"date":"2019-04-29T12:49:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=121767"},"modified":"2019-04-29T12:49:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:49:03","slug":"new-york-city-finally-backs-off-threat-to-jail-parents-who-refuse-to-vaccinate-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=121767","title":{"rendered":"New York City Finally Backs Off Threat to Jail Parents Who Refuse to Vaccinate Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

City backs off threat to jail parents who won\u2019t vaccinate kids against measles<\/h1>\n

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Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

New York Post<\/p>\n

The city has yanked its threat of criminal charges and even jail for people who don\u2019t vaccinate their children against measles, it was revealed in court Thursday.<\/p>\n

News of the move surfaced during a hearing between the city and a lawyer for parents who sued\u00a0over the Health Department\u2019s emergency order requiring children to be vaccinated<\/a>. Lawyer Robert Krakow, who filed the suit Monday on behalf of five parents opposed to the city\u2019s April 9 order, is asking a judge to nix the entire directive.<\/p>\n

Krakow brought up the issue of potential criminal charges at Thursday\u2019s hearing, prompting the city\u2019s lawyers to acknowledge that a new order was issued a day earlier, after a Board of Health meeting, which no longer contains language that threatened such penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are taking the Board of Health\u2019s view that this would be enforced civilly,\u201d said Thomas Merrill, a lawyer with the Health Department.<\/p>\n

Krakow lauded the new order after court \u2014 and credited his clients\u2019 lawsuit for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a major win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As anti-vaxxer supporters cheered on, the lawyer added that now, people who have religious objections to getting the shots for their children \u201cdon\u2019t have to worry about walking down the street or showing up in this courthouse today and being arrested or being handed a summons \u2026 being subject to a misdemeanor and imprisonment. That\u2019s out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the lawsuit highlighted the extreme nature of the orders including criminal penalties and it was after we filed the lawsuit that on Monday the city first started saying, \u2018We are not enforcing the criminal penalties,\u2019 \u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

The original April 9 order had included a warning that said, \u201cFailure to comply with this order is a violation \u2026 of the New York City Health Code, and a misdemeanor for which you may be subject to civil and\/or criminal fines, forfeitures and penalties, including imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With potential criminal ramifications off the table, Krakow said, the city still must address what he called \u201cexcessive\u201d fines under the order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t think a $1,000 fine was reasonable,\u201d Krakow said.<\/p>\n

The judge said he expects to rule on Krakow\u2019s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction by Friday.<\/p>\n

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\nhttps:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/04\/18\/city-backs-off-threat-to-jail-parents-who-wont-vaccinate-kids-against-measles\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City backs off threat to jail parents who won\u2019t vaccinate kids against measles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}