Massachusetts fined people who refused to get vaccinated. But the Supreme Judicial Court recognized it was "not in [the state's] power to vaccinate [Jacobson] by force." At Verdict, Mike Dorf ...

Courts have been botching 1905 precedent upholding mandate for vaccine that actually stops transmission since Buck v. Bell, ...

Defending COVID-19 policies against legal challenges, government officials relied heavily on Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a smallpox vaccine mandate ...

The death rate of the smallpox pandemic in 1903 was 30%. The court in Jacobson vs. Massachusetts ruled in favor of the state of Massachusetts and allowed the local smallpox vaccine mandate to remain.

(CNN) — When a US appeals court ruled this week that Texas could prevent physicians from performing abortions because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the judges leaned heavily on a 1905 Supreme Court ...

From time to time, people decide that their own Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (to coin a phrase) are more important than the safety of their fellow citizens. But states have laws ...