The beginning of another school year is an appropriate time for Colorado to reconsider its recent stand on vaccinations in light of the debate over whether states can mandate vaccinations. Had our knowledge of history been better, we would have known that the debate had already been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905:
“The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. ... Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own (opinion), whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others. This court has more than once recognized it as a fundamental principle that ‘persons and property’ are subjected to all kinds of restraints and burdens in order to secure the general comfort, health and prosperity of the state.” From the Supreme Court’s decision as summarized by the first Justice Harlan after their considering of the Jacobson v. Massachusetts case.
This was from a much longer quotation as excerpted by the Daily Kos, Aug. 16, 2015.
Shaila Van Sickle
Durango
