“So (you might ask); does a state have the legal authority to impose self-quarantining and other mandatory exposure-reducing requirements (e.g., “social distancing,” staying home, wearing face masks, etc.) as a means of combating the COVID-19 coronavirus?” The simple answer appears to be “yes,” at least according to an ancient, 115-year-old, never overruled, U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) 197 U.S. 11, it was decided that absent evidence that a particular person’s health might be jeopardized, a state, under its so-called “police power,” can, in the face of an epidemic, enforce on its populace a mandatory vaccination program without violating the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. In Jacobson, the issue was a state law mandating small pox vaccinations for everyone, absent proof, on a case-by-case basis, that compliance might jeopardize a particular person’s health. Per the Court: “The authority of the State to enact this (mandatory vaccination) statute is to be referred to what is commonly called the police power.” . . . “(T)he police power of a State must be held to embrace, at least, such reasonable regulations established directly by legislative enactment as will protect the public health and the public safety.” (pp. 24-25.) So “yes,” given the current COVID-19 coronavirus “pandemic,” a state has the power to enforce “reasonable regulations” geared towards protecting the public at large. One’s contrary 3 religious beliefs, by the way, was not discussed in this context. Neither was “equal protection,” “right to privacy,” nor any other more modern-day arguments for getting the Government out of your face. But any such alleged intrusions into your rights would seem to fall under the same rule as announced in Jacobson. In determining the constitutionality of any governmental action, it has always been an issue of balancing the “nature and quality of the intrusion” into your life with the importance of the government’s interest in doing so. (See Graham v. Connor (1989) 490 U.S. 386, at p. 396.) So don’t fight it. At least when possible, stay home, stay isolated, and stay safe, so that we all might see a quicker end to the COVID-19 pandemic.
