CONSTITUTIONALITY OF COMPULSORY VACCINATION

By Judge Marlo Campanilla

Note: The discussions herein are for the benefit of those who will take the 2021 Bar Exams. Please
refrain from making political negative remarks.

In a 1905 case entitled Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, Jacobson refused smallpox
vaccination, claiming that he and his son had had bad reactions to earlier vaccinations. Jacobson was
fined, and he appealed to the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court upheld the government
authority to require vaccination against smallpox during a smallpox epidemic and to prescribe the
penalty of fine for refusing vaccination. It was held:

“The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in
each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an
element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and
enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when
supported in their action by the authority of the State.

“It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the
legislature, and not for the courts, to determine.”

In Zucht v. King, 260 U.S. 174 (1922), an Ordinance of the City of San Antonio, Texas, provides that
no child or other person shall attend a public school or other place of education without having first
presented a certificate of vaccination. The US Supreme Court sustained the validity of the ordinance.
It was held: Long before this suit was instituted, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, had settled
that it is within the police power of a state to provide for compulsory vaccination.

In People vs. Lopez, G.R. No. L-42199, January 14, 1936, the accused, a doctor, was convicted of the
crime of failure to present his children for vaccination in violation of Section 2694 of the
Administrative Code. The Supreme Court adopted the Jacobson principle and sustained his
conviction. It was held that:
“The right of the State to compel compulsory vaccination is well established (Jacobson vs.
Massachusetts, 197 U.S., 11), and not put in question in these proceedings. The decision of America
courts are uniform to the effect that whatever dispute may exist between the various schools of
medicine as to how smallpox is to be prevented, that question is for the legislature, not for the courts,
to determine.”

Police Power of the State and cite the Jacobson case judge thanks.
Even if compulsory vaccination is passed as law but questioned in court, Operative Fact Doctrine still
applies. So pa vaccine na tayo. Haha