CHARLESTON — After a Raleigh County judge agreed to consolidate two separate cases dealing with Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order allowing for religious vaccine exemptions for school-age children and denying a motion to pause proceedings, state school officials are asking West Virginia’s highest court to hit the brakes.

In a new filing with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, attorneys for the state Board of Education are asking the justices for a stay of further proceedings before 14th Judicial Circuit Judge Michael Froble.

The filing comes one day after Froble granted a motion in Raleigh County Circuit Court Monday to consolidate a Kanawha County case challenging Morrisey’s religious exemption executive order with a Raleigh County case seeking to prevent the local school board from following the existing compulsory immunization law.

Froble denied a motion Monday sought by the state school board to stay proceedings while the state board has an appeal of a preliminary injunction granted by Froble on behalf of three Raleigh County parents seeking to prevent the local school board from following guidance from the state board to disregard religious exemptions granted by the state Department of Health.

Instead, Froble moved forward with setting a hearing to consider a permanent injunction for Sept. 10 and Sept. 11.

Chris Smith, an attorney with Bailey and Glasser representing the state board, argued in his filing that the lower court’s accelerated schedule and restriction on discovery will hamper his client’s ability to adequately defend against the plaintiffs’ claims, which involve the constitutionality of the state’s compulsory vaccination law without a religious exemption.

Smith said the motion to stay was necessary while the appeal to the Supreme Court was pending. The state board is also seeking an expedited review of its appeal, arguing it could resolve the underlying issues surrounding Morrisey’s executive order, making the lower court proceedings potentially unnecessary and inefficient.

Unless a stay is granted, Smith said the current timeline in Raleigh County Circuit Court forces the school board to proceed to trial before even filing an answer to the complaint.

“A hearing on the permanent injunction is currently set for September 10 and 11, 2025, with all expert witness reports, documents, exhibits, and witnesses to be relied upon at the hearing due to be exchanged between the parties no later than this Friday, August 29, 2025,” Smith wrote.

“This puts the State Board Petitioners in the position of having to try this case on the merits before their Answer to the Complaint is even due, and it puts all Petitioners in the position of trying the case on the merits without discovery, less than two months after it was filed, while balancing any requirements of the appellate process during that time,” Smith continued.

State Code 16-3-1 requires children attending school to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown.

The Raleigh County and Kanawha County lawsuits are in response to a Jan. 14 executive order issued by Morrisey citing the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act to allow for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school vaccination mandates.

The Raleigh County case involves three parents who received religious exemptions from the state. The Kanawha County lawsuit involves two parents with immunocompromised children seeking an injunction to block the Department of Health from granting religious exemptions.

While the governor’s office released additional guidance to parents in May on how to seek a religious exemption with the Department of Health, the state Board of Education issued guidance to county school systems to ignore the executive order and continue to follow the existing compulsory immunization law.

Morrisey had a bill introduced during the 2025 legislative session earlier this year on his behalf that would have codified a religious and philosophical vaccine exemption in State Code. It passed the Senate, but an amended version of the bill in the House of Delegates was defeated in a narrow vote. West Virginia’s compulsory immunization law has been on the books since the 1930s.

“The State of West Virginia and its schools have successfully administered the Vaccine Law for decades, maintaining their students’ and the public’s health consistent with federal and state constitutional protections of freedom of religion, with repeated approval from the courts and despite the Legislature’s unsuccessful efforts to amend the law,” Smith wrote. “Before any court should venture to impose change this drastic, petitioners need to be afforded sufficient time to develop the complex medical, social, and educational issues raised by plaintiff-respondents’ operative complaint in this matter.”