The Police Power of the State is Not without Limits

“…if it be apparent or can be shown with reasonable certainty that he is not at the time a fit subject of vaccination or that vaccination, by reason of his then condition, would seriously impair his health or probably cause his death.”

In so far as Jacobson is used to justify forced vaccination, it is essentially old law, which does not take into account subsequent decisions. The Brief reviews those decisions, but two stand out.  One is Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hosp.,105 N.E. 92, 93 (N.Y. 1914) which held medical intervention without Informed Consent to be an assault and battery and the other is Missouri vs McNeely, 569 US 141 (2013)  wherein the Supreme Court stated:

Even a “…diminished expectation of privacy does not diminish the… privacy interest in preventing a government agent from piercing the… skin. And though a blood test conducted in a medical setting by trained personnel is less intrusive than other bodily invasions, this Court has never retreated from its recognition that any compelled intrusion into the human body implicates significant, constitutionally protected privacy interests…”

Judge John Broomes should be honored as a member of the Federal Bench who understands the powerful notion that “the police power of the state is not without limits.”  Among those limits are those imposed by the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights as applied to the States by the 14th Amendment.