Home > Great American Court Cases > Jacobson v. Massachusetts

Legal Citation: 197 U.S. 11 (1905)

Appellant
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Appellee
Henning Jacobson

Appellant's Claim
That a state statute authorizing compulsory vaccination and delegating to a municipality the authority to determine when compulsory vaccination was necessary was constitutional.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant
George Fred Williams and James A. Halloran

Chief Lawyers for Appellee
Frederick H. Nash and Herbert Parker

Justices for the Court
Henry Billings Brown, William Rufus Day, Melville Weston Fuller, John Marshall Harlan II (writing for the Court), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph McKenna, Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting
David Josiah Brewer, Rufus Wheeler Peckham

Place
Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision
20 February 1905