WHILE our generation is often said to be apathetic and oblivious to the fine points of grand political theory, the recent pot bust at the University rekindled a healthy skepticism of government paternalism over self-respecting behavior. In this context, I was more than slightly annoyed when I recently found my Law School registration for spring semester blocked once again by Student Health for having an allegedly outdated tetanus-diphtheria booster. Though I eventually resolved the problem without undue waste of time and money, it was the prospect of being subject to the beck and call of big government nannyism that infuriated me.
In the landmark 1905 case of Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court established the right of state governments to use their "police powers" to compel citizens to be vaccinated for the public good. But even if governments have the legal right to infringe on individual liberty, that does not mean it is always right. In the Jacobsen case, it was only the imminent threat of a deadly smallpox epidemic that forced the government's hand; it is doubtful that it would otherwise have resorted to such draconian measures.
This important principle of self-restraint must have escaped the legislators of the great Commonwealth of Virginia when they, in their infinite wisdom, enacted Section 23-7.5 into the state statute. The provision requires that "no full-time student shall be enrolled for the first time in any four-year, public institution of higher education in this Commonwealth unless he has furnished
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