Upholding a Vaccine Mandate, the 9th Circuit Embraces an Alarmingly Broad Definition of 'Public Health'

Defending COVID-19 policies against legal challenges, government officials relied heavily on Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a smallpox vaccine mandate imposed by the Cambridge Board of Health. But the breadth of the license granted by that decision is…