U.S. Supreme Court Has Upheld Vaccine Mandates

What’s happening? In 1905 the US Supreme Court upheld a vaccine mandates in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

Why is this important? The country was grappling with small pox and adoption of the small pox vaccine.

How will this be important? Court watchers will assuredly wonder if Jackson remains precedent. Most telling is this: “The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State. It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine  in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”

197 U.S. 11 (1905)