Are vaccine mandates constitutional? In this episode of Unwritten Law, hosts Mark Chenoweth and John Vecchione sit down with NCLA’s Jenin Younes to discuss Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Carvalho, a critical case before the Ninth Circuit challenging Los Angeles Unified School District’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The lawsuit questions whether government agencies can force employees to take a non-sterilizing vaccine—one that does not stop transmission—under the long-misinterpreted Jacobson v. Massachusetts precedent. The team unpacks why Jacobson doesn’t justify rubber-stamping mandates, how courts have misapplied it for decades, and what this case could mean for future public health policies.