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 approximately 650,000 who have died from COVID-19 as of this writing. Governments and private businesses are requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for their employees, universities are mandating them for their students, and cities are telling their residents that if they want to eat inside a restaurant or attend pretty much any indoor entertainment event, they too must get vaccinated. Critics of the mandates and other orders issued in the name of public health have flooded the courts with lawsuits, challenging the policies on civil-liberties grounds. Some have asked the ACLU for help. But the century-old organization most famous for taking up this cause—civil liberties is actually its middle name—has instead joined the other side.
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