ACLU 2008 vs. ACLU 2021
2008: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/privacy/pemic_report.pdf 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/covid-vaccine-mandates-civil-liberties.html (https://archive.vn/2po0V)
ACLU 2008:
Highly discriminatory and forcible vaccination and quarantine measures adopted in response to outbreaks of the plague and smallpox over the past century have consistently accelerated rather than slowed the spread of disease, while fomenting public distrust and, in some cases, riots.
ACLU 2021:
In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated and communities of color hit hard by the disease.
ACLU 2008:
Following this flawed logic, several state-based proposals have sought to address any “public health emergency,” ignored effective steps that states could take to mitigate an epidemic, such as reinvigorating their public health infrastructure, and instead resorted to punitive, police-state tactics, such as forced examinations, vaccination and treatment, and criminal sanctions for those individuals who did not follow the rules.
ACLU 2021:
Vaccines are a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity. That may sound ominous, because we all have the fundamental right to bodily integrity and to make our own health care decisions. But these rights are not absolute. They do not include the right to inflict harm on others.
ACLU 2008:
Likewise, when smallpox arrived in Boston in 1902, health officials, accompanied by police officers, forcibly vaccinated immigrants and African Americans.7 Although the Supreme Court later upheld the authority of a city to fine individuals who refused vaccination during an epidemic,8 the Court never approved forcibly vaccinating people... In contrast, New York City relied on a different approach in 1947, one that viewed the public as the client rather than the enemy of public health. When smallpox reappeared in the city after a long absence, the city educated the public about the problem and instituted a massive voluntary vaccination campaign. Not surprisingly, no coercion was needed.
ACLU 2021:
religious freedom is an essential right, but not an unfettered license to inflict harm on others. As the Supreme Court explained more than 75 years ago in Prince v. Massachusetts: “The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death.”
ACLU 2008:
Nonetheless it is worth emphasizing to public officials that the Supreme Court has ruled that competent individuals have a right to refuse any medical treatment, including life-sustaining treatment, and this includes vaccinations. Also, while it is likely that almost everyone will want, and even demand, access to vaccine— the right to refuse to be vaccinated should be honored. No one should be forced to be vaccinated against their will both because of the constitutional right to refuse treatment, and pragmatically because forced vaccination will deter at least some people from seeking medical help when they need it.