PER CURIAM:
Plaintiffs brought this action challenging on constitutional grounds New York State's requirement that all children be vaccinated in order to attend public school. Plaintiffs argued that the statutory vaccination requirement, which is subject to medical and religious exemptions, violates their substantive due process rights, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Ninth Amendment, and both state and municipal law. On the same grounds, plaintiffs argued that a state regulation permitting school officials to temporarily exclude from school students who are exempted from the vaccination requirement during an out-break of a vaccine-preventable disease is unconstitutional. Defendants moved to dismiss or for summary judgment. The district court (William F. Kuntz II, Judge) granted defendants' motions. Because we conclude that the statute and regulation are a constitutionally permissible exercise of the State's police power and do not infringe on the free exercise of religion, and we determine that plaintiffs' remaining arguments are either meritless or waived, we affirm.
New York requires that students in the State's public schools be immunized against various vaccine-preventable illnesses. The New York Public Health Law provides that "[n]o principal, teacher, owner or person in charge of a school shall permit any child to be admitted to such school, or to attend such school, in excess of fourteen days" without a certificate of immunization. N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2164(7)(a). The statute provides two exemptions from the immunization mandate. First, a medical exemption is available "[i]f any physician licensed to practice medicine in this state certifies that such immunization may be detrimental to a child's health." Id. § 2164(8). Second, the a religious exemption is available for "children whose parent, parents, or guardian hold genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practices herein required." Id. § 2164(9). The State provides multiple layers of review for parents if either of these exemptions is denied.
Plaintiffs Nicole Phillips and Fabian Mendoza-Vaca, who are Catholic, received religious exemptions for their children. In November 2011 and January 2012, however, the Phillips and Mendoza-Vaca children were excluded from school when a fellow student was diagnosed with chicken
Plaintiff Dina Check applied for a religious exemption for her daughter, M.C.
The district court (Sandra L. Townes, Judge) referred the preliminary injunction application to Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom, who held a hearing at which Check testified regarding the purported religious basis for her objections to vaccines.
The Magistrate Judge issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that the request for a preliminary injunction be denied. She found that Check's testimony demonstrated that her views on vaccination were primarily health-related and did not constitute a genuine and sincere religious belief. The Magistrate Judge noted especially that "plaintiff's testimony that she did not adopt her views opposing vaccination until she believed that immunization jeopardized her daughter's health is compelling evidence that plaintiff's refusal to immunize her child is based on medical considerations and not religious beliefs." (Id. at 211.) The district court adopted the Report and Recommendation and denied injunctive relief.
We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss, accepting as true all facts alleged in the complaint and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Kassner v. 2nd Ave. Delicatessen Inc., 496 F.3d 229, 237 (2d Cir.2007).
Plaintiffs argue that New York's mandatory vaccination requirement violates substantive due process. This argument is foreclosed by the Supreme Court's decision in Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, 25 S.Ct. 358, 49 L.Ed. 643 (1905). In that case, the plaintiff challenged Massachusetts's compulsory vaccination law under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court held that mandatory vaccination was within the State's police power. Id. at 25-27, 25 S.Ct. 358; see Zucht v. King, 260 U.S. 174, 176, 43 S.Ct. 24, 67 L.Ed. 194 (1922) ("Jacobson ... settled that it is within the police power of a state to provide for compulsory vaccination."). The Court rejected the claim that the individual liberty guaranteed by the Constitution overcame the State's judgment that mandatory vaccination was in the interest of the population as a whole. Jacobson, 197 U.S. at 38, 25 S.Ct. 358. Plaintiffs argue that a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrates that vaccines cause more harm to society than good, but as Jacobson made clear, that is a determination for the legislature, not the individual objectors. See id. at 37-38, 25 S.Ct. 358.
Plaintiffs next argue that the temporary exclusion from school of the Phillips and Mendoza-Vaca children during the chicken pox outbreak unconstitutionally burdens their free exercise of religion.
New York could constitutionally require that all children be vaccinated in order to attend public school. New York law goes beyond what the Constitution requires by allowing an exemption for parents with genuine and sincere religious beliefs. Because the State could bar Phillips's and Mendoza-Vaca's children from school altogether, a fortiori, the State's more limited exclusion during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease is clearly constitutional.
Plaintiffs argue that the mandatory vaccination provision violates their rights under the Equal Protection Clause. To the extent that plaintiffs are claiming discrimination against Catholics, that argument plainly fails because Phillips and Mendoza-Vaca are both Catholic and received religious exemptions. Plaintiffs alternatively argue that Check was treated differently than her similarly-situated co-plaintiffs. But, as discussed above, plaintiffs
Plaintiffs finally seek succor in the Ninth Amendment. But, we have held, "[t]he Ninth Amendment is not an independent source of individual rights." Jenkins v. C.I.R., 483 F.3d 90, 92 (2d Cir. 2007). Because plaintiffs fail plausibly to allege a violation of any other constitutional right, their effort to recast their unsuccessful claims as a violation of the Ninth Amendment also fails. See id. at 93.
Plaintiffs also raise numerous arguments on appeal based on a deposition of DOE official Julia Sykes and other documents that they obtained in discovery. Those arguments were raised for the first time in plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration and therefore were not properly presented to the district court. Accordingly, they are waived. See Sompo Japan Ins. Co. of Am. v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 762 F.3d 165, 188 (2d Cir.2014) (declining to consider arguments raised for the first time in motion for reconsideration where no reason exists to excuse untimeliness).
For the foregoing reasons, the order of the district court is