The first US Supreme Court case concerning antivaxxers and the power of the states in enacting public-health laws followed a 1902 smallpox outbreak. The board of health in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had mandated that residents be vaccinated against smallpox. Otherwise, they would be fined $5 (over $100 in today’s money). A resident named Henning Jacobson refused, claiming that he and his son had had bad reactions to earlier vaccinations and arguing that the law violated his civil liberties. The city filed criminal charges against him. Jacobson lost, but he appealed the decision to the Supreme
...more
