Live Online Policy Forum 

# COVID and the Constitution: *Jacobson*, *Lochner*, Mandates, and Lockdowns 

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Date and Time 

October 20, 2021 12 - 1 PM EDT 

Location 

Live Online 

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##### Featuring 

[![Media Name: josh-blackman-hs-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/authors/crops/josh-blackman-hs-cropped.jpg?itok=iIcl4_b5)](/people/josh-blackman) 

[Josh Blackman](/people/josh-blackman)

Professor, South Texas College of Law Houston

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](https://twitter.com/joshmblackman) 

![e-Kontorovich-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-10/e-Kontorovich-cropped.jpg?itok=jaka8Ws_) 

Eugene Kontorovich 

Professor, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

[ 

](https://twitter.com/evkontorovich) 

![w-Mariner-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-10/w-Mariner-cropped.jpg?itok=v-Nnq6PU) 

Wendy Mariner 

Professor Emerita, Boston University School of Public Health

[ 

](https://twitter.com/wendymariner) 

[![Ilya Shapiro](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Ilya%20Shapiro.jpg?itok=m1_rdWBG)](/people/ilya-shapiro) 

[Ilya Shapiro](/people/ilya-shapiro)

Former Vice President and Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

In 1905, the Supreme Court rendered two landmark decisions on the scope of individual liberty: *Jacobson v. Massachusetts* and *Lochner v. New York*. *Jacobson*’s broad deference to public health authority lived side by side with *Lochner*’s broader conception of economic liberty. While the restrictive precedent, *Jacobson*, now governs all pandemic response, *Lochner* is no longer available as a check, having been thrown in the dustbin of legal history. Judges follow a variant of *Jacobson* that’s far removed from the actual decision to resolve disputes over religious freedom, abortion, gun rights, voting, and more. Over the course of a century, four prominent justices established the irrepressible myth of *Jacobson v. Massachusetts*.

At a time when state police power has imposed unprecedented limits on individuals’ ability to provide for themselves, *Lochner* should be brought out of lockdown. The rationales for *Lochner*’s subsequent disavowal by the Court are largely inapplicable to the COVID-19 situation. Shutdown orders and the like have an economic effect but are not economic policy. They may be one of the broadest assertions of sovereign authority in peacetime, but we lack the constitutional language to deal with the potential danger to liberty implicated by such measures. Please join Josh Blackman and Eugene Kontorovich to discuss their recent work in this area, with commentary by Wendy Mariner.

## Additional Resources

- [The Irrepressible Myth of Jacobson v. Massachusetts](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3906452) by Josh Blackman
- [Lochner Under Lockdown](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3902335) by Eugene Kontorovich
- [Federal Vaccine Mandates Pose a Constitutional Triple Threat](https://www.cato.org/blog/federal-vaccine-mandates-pose-constitutional-triple-threat) by Ilya Shapiro

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