Jacobson v. Massachusetts 1905, (197 US 11): Mandated Vaccines Then and Now
Wed, Jan 12
|Zoom
Our leader Nathan Virag, a graduate of the Univ. of Illinois Chicago Law School, immigrant rights specialist and a legal scholar will help us understand the debate between individual liberty and the collective good.
Time & Location
Jan 12, 2022, 6:00 PM
Zoom
About The Event
During a small pox outbreak in the early 20th century in the United States a Cambridge pastor, Henning Jacobsen sued the State of Massachusetts when that State mandated vaccines for all to protect public safety and health. Mr. Jacobson, an immigrant from Sweden asserted that he had experienced serious health consequences from past experience with vaccines. He argued further that the Constitution of the United States under the 14th Amendment which guarantees the equal protection of the law guaranteed his human right and liberty to decide what medical treatments were in his best interest and that the State should not have the police power to force injections on unwilling Americans.
In 1905 the Supreme Court of the United States held in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that State laws mandating vaccines were within the police powers of the State in order to further the public good. (Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 US 11(1905).…