In this final installment of our four-part series on the resurgence of COVID-19 workplace issues, we are taking a look at the legalities and practicalities of mandating the COVID-19 vaccine. A hot-button issue, vaccine mandates have not been as closely scrutinized since the smallpox outbreaks of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then, in 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the matter in Jacobson v. Massachusetts and ruled that states could require citizens to receive the smallpox vaccine. More than 100 years later, businesses and employers across the country are considering similar questions as they contemplate mandatory employee vaccination policies in efforts to combat COVID-19. More.