The fight to keep Milford Christian Church’s daycare open continues, despite a major setback.
In 2023, the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC) threatened to remove Little Eagle’s Daycare and Preschool’s license because it did not enforce the state’s vaccine laws. The church sued in response, and on Aug. 8, 2025, the judge, Victor Bolden, dismissed the case.
Now, the church is bringing the case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the church’s attorney, Cameron Atkinson. Atkinson is working with the law firm and nonprofit organization We the Patriots USA.
“The state essentially gave the daycare and the pastor three options,” Atkinson said. “The first one is that they could have all the kids vaccinated, the second one was that they could expel the unvaccinated kids and the third one was that the state could shut the doors to the daycare.”
The church, which considers the daycare to be a part of its ministry, sued the state shortly after they were issued this ultimatum. They argued that forcing congregants to get vaccinated and requiring the daycare to uphold a vaccination requirement violates their First Amendment rights.
“We’re in America in 2025 and we’re talking about the state of Connecticut conditioning access to a church’s ministry, that church either turning people away because they don’t comply with a state condition, or shutting that church down because the church won’t violate what the Bible teaches, just because the state says they have to,” Atkinson said. “That’s absurd. The fact that we’re talking about that, that the state is claiming the power to control who can control the church’s ministry, is just unfathomable to the Founding Fathers. It’s unfathomable to anybody who honors the Constitution and it’s unconstitutional, regardless of what the judges says.”
Bolden was following precedent set by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Atkinson.
In 2021, Connecticut passed a law that ended religious exemptions for vaccine mandates. This law was already challenged in 2022, when unvaccinated children were denied special education services. A federal district court dismissed the case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s decision and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. This plaintiffs in that lawsuit were also represented by We the Patriots.
Even though Little Eagle’s has been able to remain open during the court proceedings, the lawsuit has impacted the Milford Christian Church community.
“In some ways, it just made them more intent on obeying God first, and in other ways, it’s hurt,” Atkinson said. “They’re under attack. Right now, the state has agreed to allow them to remain open to the Second Circuit proceedings, but there’s certainly a target on their back, and they operate every day knowing that it could be their last and we need the courts to intervene to say it’s not right.”
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Mr. Atkinson says the church is choosing to obey God rather than the state’s vaccine mandate. I would like to know the scriptural basis for their refusal.