Jun 18, 2023 03:26 AM
https://dcjournal.com/does-the-14th-amen...s-disease/
EXCERPTS: From time to time, people decide that their own life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (to coin a phrase) take precedence over the safety of their fellow citizens...
That conflict played out recently when a Washington state woman defied more than a dozen court orders requiring her to be treated for her tuberculosis, a highly infectious, potentially fatal bacterial disease that can affect many organs. She was finally taken into custody on June 1, three months after a civil warrant was issued for her arrest, and she will be housed in a room specially equipped for isolation and treatment.
[...] Other states, including Florida and Texas, have statutes that permit involuntary treatment by court order if voluntary treatment is refused.
Similar incidents are well known. [...like...] a 1905 Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts. A Massachusetts law allowed cities to require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox. The city of Cambridge adopted such an ordinance, but Henning Jacobson refused to comply with the requirement. He was fined five dollars and took the matter to court, claiming that his right to liberty under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment had been infringed.
The Supreme Court held that the law was a legitimate exercise of the state’s police power to protect its citizens’ health and safety. The court said that local boards of health had determined when mandatory vaccinations were needed, which made the requirement neither unreasonable nor arbitrarily imposed... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: From time to time, people decide that their own life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (to coin a phrase) take precedence over the safety of their fellow citizens...
That conflict played out recently when a Washington state woman defied more than a dozen court orders requiring her to be treated for her tuberculosis, a highly infectious, potentially fatal bacterial disease that can affect many organs. She was finally taken into custody on June 1, three months after a civil warrant was issued for her arrest, and she will be housed in a room specially equipped for isolation and treatment.
[...] Other states, including Florida and Texas, have statutes that permit involuntary treatment by court order if voluntary treatment is refused.
Similar incidents are well known. [...like...] a 1905 Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts. A Massachusetts law allowed cities to require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox. The city of Cambridge adopted such an ordinance, but Henning Jacobson refused to comply with the requirement. He was fined five dollars and took the matter to court, claiming that his right to liberty under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment had been infringed.
The Supreme Court held that the law was a legitimate exercise of the state’s police power to protect its citizens’ health and safety. The court said that local boards of health had determined when mandatory vaccinations were needed, which made the requirement neither unreasonable nor arbitrarily imposed... (MORE - details)