Supreme Court Briefs - Jacobson v. Massachusetts (Patreon)

Can the Government Force You to be Vaccinated? | Jacobson v. Massachusetts

In episode 53 of Supreme Court Briefs, a man refuses to get vaccinated for smallpox and has to pay a fine. He obviously fights back. #supremecourtbriefs #jacobsonvmassachusetts #vaccines Song featured in this video: "Hooray for Propaganda!" by Electric Needle Room (Mr. Beat's band) https://open.spotify.com/track/41IW4iqc4iRcu1vgTdq6N7?si=U7KMeIZwQzixZTsfJyiTVQ Recommended reading Wilrich, Michael (2011). Pox: An American History. Penguin. Buy it here: https://amzn.to/3curkAn Want a specific SCOTUS case covered? Your idea gets picked when you donate on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/iammrbeat Donate on Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/mrbeat Buy Mr. Beat T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.: https://sfsf.shop/support-mrbeat/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mrbeat/ Mr. Beat's band: http://electricneedleroom.net/ Mr. Beat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/beatmastermatt Mr. Beat on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iammrbeat/ Mr. Beat on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammrbeat Mr. Beat's Discord server: https://discord.gg/waK44fH Produced by Matt Beat. All images by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Check out cool primary sources here: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/197us11 Other sources used: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/197/11/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/21/jay-inslee/are-stay-home-orders-laws-jay-inslee-said/ https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/vaccines/Jacobson_v_Massachusetts_brief.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts https://reason.com/2020/04/30/when-the-supreme-court-upheld-a-compulsory-vaccination-law/ https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/the-limits-of-constitutional-rights/ https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/politics/pandemic-coronavirus-jacobson-supreme-court-abortion-rights/index.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449224/ https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/henning-jacobson-loses-his-freedom-to-the-board-of-public-health/ Dobson, Mary (2007) Disease: The Extraordinary Stories Behind History’s Deadliest Killers Cambridge, Massachusetts 1902 Henning Jacobson, a local minister, refuses to be vaccinated for smallpox by the city’s board of health. Now, smallpox is one of the most awful and devastating diseases in human history. Even though Edward Jenner had discovered a vaccine to help prevent smallpox back in 1796, in 1902 the average mortality rate for the disease was as high as 25 to 30%. In fact, between around 1902 until when it was finally eradicated thanks to the World Health Organization in the late 1970s, smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people around the world. As much of a threat as smallpox still was in 1902, Jacobson didn’t think it was worth it to get vaccinated. You could call him an “anti-vaxxer” of sorts. You see, Jacobson grew up in Sweden, where they had a law that required all children get vaccinated for smallpox. So yeah, as a child, Jacobson got the vaccine as well, but later claimed the vaccine caused him “great and extreme suffering” that he had to deal with permanently. Later, his son also went through “adverse effects” after getting the vaccine as a child. And thus, Jacobson and his wife both were like “nu-uh, nope. No more vaccines.” Meanwhile, the state of Massachusetts had passed a law saying city boards of health could force their citizens to get vaccinated “when necessary for public health or safety.” Cambridge, which had seen a surge in smallpox outbreaks in June, forced everyone to get the smallpox vaccine or face a fine of $5, which is around $150 today. Now, the vaccine was not guaranteed to last your entire life, so adults who were vaccinated as children had to get vaccinated again. Despite many of his neighbors dying from smallpox, Jacobson still refused to get vaccinated again, and the city fined him. Others also refused and appeared in court together in July. Jacobson argued the vaccine was an “invasion of his liberty.” Eh, they made him pay the fine anyway. He and others appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, but it agreed with Cambridge. So Jacobson appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court, who heard oral arguments on December 6, 1904. Jacobson and his lawyers brought up the almighty Fourteenth Amendment, saying the Massachusetts law requiring vaccination overstepped personal liberty and could lead to more government control of individual behaviors. The Court announced their decision on February 20, 1905. They sided with Massachusetts. It was 7-2. While the Court agreed that individual liberties were important, public safety, and the state’s obligation to get rid of smallpox, were both more important. Those who did not get vaccines literally endangered the lives of others, and ultimately, the Court decided that forced vaccinations were a legitimate way to protect the lives of citizens.