On February 20, 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal from the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in a 7-2 majority, “in one of its most clear and conclusive paragraphs emphatically declares the preeminent rights of the individual in certain spheres” stated
“There is, of course, a sphere within which the individual may assert the supremacy of his own will and rightfully dispute the authority of any human government, especially of any free government existing under a written constitution, to interfere with the exercise of that will.”
In 1902, Pastor Henning Jacobson, claimed that he and his son were both injured by previous smallpox vaccines, and refused to receive any more. In the 1904 court case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts it was concluded that the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts “at worst” could fine residents who refused to receive smallpox injections. [1, 2, 3] This was a State law that was up held, not a federal legislation.
“If a person should deem it important that vaccination should not be performed in his case and the authorities should think otherwise, it is not in their power to vaccinate him by force, and the worst that could happen to him under the statute would be the payment of the penalty of five dollars.’’ [5, 7]
This case is quoted [4] today as the precedent for the US federal government to enforce compulsory vaccination. They tend to leave out the “or receive a fine” caviet! ($155 in today’s dollars), just for starters. [6]