do you think he was bading republican governors to overreact? as laura notes, these mandates are broadly popular, not among the republican base but among the american people. a federal government can mandate for all citizens, period. he has that power. you re talking about jacobson versus massachusetts? 1905? i went to law school. [ laughter ] yeah. it was a guy who didn t want to get vaccinated for smallpox, and the supreme court said i m sorry, you have to. right. by the way, if you re interested, as my conservative friends are, in the intent of the framers, george washington was the chairman of the constitutional convention. before that remandated that every soldier in his army be inoculated. soldiers don t have any rights. that s not debatable. federal employees are more like a soldier than a private sector employee in that they
powers not only of states but also the federal government and briefly on that issue, since 1905, 120 some-odd years ago you had jacobson and the issue was in the case, listen, can we really mandate a state, could it mandate vaccinations? it can. and then you ve had that in 19 2 22, it can. and along those lines. last issue, and that is yes, we re not talking about states here. police powers. we re talking about the federal government. if you want to have that argument and if anyone wants to argue about that, look at the public health service act. it gives broad powers to the cdc, centers for disease control, to our health and human services to prevent the diseases. yeah, people may be unhappy about it. maybe argue about how you can execute the policy better and you could do a and b and c. we can have that argument. but with respect to a legal argument, i do believe he s firmly within legal realm. and again, i don t think it s a close constitutional question. there is going to be, tho
government. the federal government has never ordered compulsory vaccination. but states haveve and it s been upheld not once, but twice by the united states supreme court. first in 1905 by massachusetts and again, 1922 in texas. both cases involving smallpox vaccination. they say, you have that right. police powers to protect the health and safety of the public. the federal government doesn t, so you re going to have, as you pointed out, you going to have states suing, legislatures suing, governors suing, individuals across america suing. you re going to have businesses that are suing. you re going to have congress as well as state legislatures trying to pass laws to counter. as for businesses, they can on their own mandate vaccines. that has been upheld by the courts. in this is where it gets tricky,
health concerns, not the federal government. the federal government has never ordered compulsory vaccination. but states have and it s been upheld not once, but twice by the united states supreme court. first in 1905 by massachusetts and again, 1922 in texas. both cases involving smallpox vaccination. they say, you have that right. police powers to protect the health and safety of the public. the federal government doesn t, so you re going to have, as you pointed out, you going to have states suing, legislatures suing, governors suing, individuals across america suing. you re going to have businesses that are suing. you re going to have congress as well as state legislatures trying to pass laws to counter. as for businesses, they can on their own mandate vaccines. that has been upheld by the
breakthrough infections with the current covid vaccine available and no exemption for people who have not been vaccinated because they previously caught covid as because of employment. they are not legal. this is a legal segment. they lost in federal courts on constitutional grounds and the fact that the matter at these hospitals and employees are at will employees which means they can be fired for any reason for so long as not illegal. this is not a vaccine passport. it is a hospital in a highly critical area dealing with patients and employees to become infected. so you don t want to go in with a heart attack and not vaccinated, hey, good news she is survived that heart attack but bad news can make you died of covid. the government jacobson versus massachusetts or massachusetts come again in 1905 says that compulsory vaccination defines the government and completely