Why the ACLU Flip-Flopped on Vaccine Mandates
Updated at 12:50 p.m. ET on September 8, 2021.
A dozen years ago, a deadly virus was spreading around the world, and authorities in New York issued a mandate that all health-care workers in the state get vaccinated. The American Civil Liberties Union objected.
Forced vaccination against the H1N1 flu, the ACLU wrote at the time, “was not warranted.” The organization’s New York chapter said that individuals “have a constitutional right to bodily autonomy,” and that ordering people to choose between a vaccine and losing their job “is coercive, invasive and unjustifiably intrudes upon their fundamental rights.”
The limited vaccine mandates adopted during the H1N1 epidemic pale in comparison with the directives popping up now in response to the far more dangerous COVID-19 crisis. At the time of the ACLU’s 2009 statement, about 1,500 Americans had died from the H1N1 virus, compared with the is actually its middle name—has instead joined the other side.
