Jacobson v. Massachusetts and Public Health Law: Perspectives in 2005

This multimedia presentation asks the question: What is the proper balance between our rights as individuals and the government’s responsibility to protect the health of the community? The U.S. Supreme Court spoke to this issue in 1905 in its landmark Jacobson v. Massachusetts ruling. At the time, the issue was whether the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could require vaccination against smallpox without violating the individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. One hundred years later, on June 14, 2005, at the fourth annual public health law conference co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, a distinguished panel met to explore the ruling’s implications for the public’s health and for American law. This presentation contains the complete proceedings of the 2005 panel as well as curriculum guides for law and public health faculty.