Bethany Bump is reporting for the Times Union a lawsuit was filed July 10, in state Supreme Court in Albany County on behalf of 55 families, challenging a new state law that ends the religious exemption for school vaccination rules. Two attorneys, including well known vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filed the complaint on behalf of the plaintiffs, all of whom had previously obtained the exemptions. They are asking the court stop the new law from taking effect. Kennedy and co-counsel Michael Sussman argue the state's ban on religious exemptions is unconstitutional and unreasonably interferes with religious freedom. "Religious rights are fundamental," said Kennedy. "It is unconstitutional for the state to deprive people of such important rights when religious animus has played a key role." In June, legislation was signed into law eliminating all non-medical exemptions to New York's school vaccination rules. Those rules require anyone attending public or private school to be vaccinated against common childhood diseases. The measure was taken up by state lawmakers in the wake of a significant measles outbreak that have been concentrated in ultra-Orthodox communities in parts of Brooklyn and Rockland County. Read the full story in the Times Union. Sussman was responsible for blocking an emergency declaration barring unvaccinated children in Rockland County from schools and other public places. Judge Michael Mackey said he would decide by Fri., July 12, whether to grant the requested stay. Read the full story in the Times Union.