Jacobson v. Massachusetts
Supreme Court of the United States
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OP THE STATE OP MASSACHUSETTS. This case involves the validity, under the Constitution of the United States, of certain provisions in the statutes of Massachusetts relating to vaccination.
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ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OP THE STATE OP MASSACHUSETTS. This case involves the validity, under the Constitution of the United States, of certain provisions in the statutes of Massachusetts relating to vaccination. The Revised Laws of that Commonwealth, c. 75, § 137, provide that “the board of health Of a city Or town if, in its opinion, it is necessary for the public health or safety shall require and enforce the vaccination and revaccination of all the inhabitants thereof and shall provide them with the means of free vaccination. Whoever, being over twenty-one years of age and not under…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Harlan
We pass without extended discussion the suggestion that the particular section of the statute of Massachusetts now in question (§ 137, c. 75) is in derogation of rights secured by the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States. Although'that Preamble indicates the. general purposes for which the people ordained and established the Constitution,. it has never been regarded as the source of any substantive power conferred on the Government of the United States or on any of its Departments. Such powers embrace only those expressly granted in the body of the Constitution and such as may be…
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