Many people are objecting to the mandate to get vaccinated and there are a number of lawsuits working through the courts. For the most part, people are arguing for an exemption. The core question should be âDoes the Federal Government have the legal authority to issue a vaccine mandate?â In a word, no.
State Vaccine Mandates Can be Permissible
The foundational and still-controlling legal authority is Jacobson v. Mass, 197 U.S. 11 (1905). In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a vaccine mandate issued by a town. The Court reasoned that the townâs legal authority flowed from the Stateâs general police powers. Massachusetts law empowered local boards of health to mandate vaccines for when a contagious disease has an outbreak. During a Small Pox outbreak, the Cambridge board of health mandated that all adults who were fit candidates had to be vaccinated or pay a $5 fine. The Supreme Court found that the concern about an outbreak of a deadly and contagious disease justified this use of the stateâs police powers.