On December 16, 2024 Free Now Foundation filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California challenging the constitutionality of California’s requirement for certain vaccinations before children can attend either public or private schools. We asked for both preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop those requirements. We claimed that the mandated vaccinations were not safe, that they often caused injury and even death. We made that argument on the basis that the U.S. Congress has already determined that these vaccinations can cause injury because, in 1986, it passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which provides money to children who have been injured by these required vaccinations. More than $4 billion has been paid out so far under that act.
The defendant in the case was the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”), which is charged with enforcing those requirements.
The CDPH, represented by the office of the Attorney General of California asked the Court to dismiss the case entirely, claiming that California had the constitutional authority for these vaccinations under a U.S. Supreme Court case involving a requirement for small pox vaccinations for those living in the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a requirement upheld by the Supreme Court under the Jacobson case of 1905.
Recently, on February 4, 2026, the district court in Sacramento issued its ruling in the case, denying our motion for temporary injunction and dismissing the entire case. Despite the obvious dubiousness of requiring vaccinations known to injure and kill children, akin to forbidding them from sitting in car seats and wearing seatbelts when riding in cars, the Sacramento federal court’s decision was not unexpected since the Jacobson decision is still on the books and the lower courts, including the Sacramento court, have to follow the precedent’s set by the Supreme Court until the Supreme Court overrules itself.
This week we filed our Notice of Appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which includes California and the states in the western United States. We will have about sixty days to file our Opening Brief in which we need to try to convince the Ninth Circuit that Jacobson does not apply for various reasons. Following that, the CDPH will have sixty days to file its Opposition Brief in which it will likely argue that Jacobson does control this case. We will then have about thirty days to file a Reply Brief to argue why the CDPH is wrong.
Then several months will go by until the Ninth Circuit sets a hearing date on our appeal, which will be held before a panel of three judges. The panel will likely take more weeks, or even months, to issue its ruling, which is more likely than not to be against us based on the Jacobson decision.
At that point we can finally ask the Supreme Court to take our case. We may have a somewhat better chance of being heard by the Supreme Court because Justice Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion in a case several years ago in which he was rather critical of Jacobson. It takes four votes to get a case heard by the Supreme Court and Justice Gorsuch may well be one of them.
Another factor in our favor by the time that we get to the Supreme Court is that DHHS Secretary Kennedy has been chipping away at the safety of these vaccines and that will count with the Supreme Court, which relies on the government for medical advice since its members are judges, not medical scientists.
So, this very important case has a long way to go before these vaccination mandates under Jacobson are overturned, which is very highly important. It is important even if DHHS Secretary Kennedy takes these vaccinations off the recommended list because a successor could just as easily put them back on the recommended list at some time in the future. Thus, a favorable Supreme Court ruling in our favor would be much better because its decisions are much longer-lasting and not easily reversed.
For this reason, as the attorney who filed this case, “I’m extremely grateful for your donations that have made this case possible, and appreciate your continued support for our work.” It is very important so that we can take this case to the Supreme Court and win, once and for all!
Dr. Fox received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1975 and his law degree from Santa Clara University in 2009. He is board-certified in Pediatrics and board-eligible in both Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Pediatric Pulmonology. He has held faculty positions at the University of Colorado and Harvard Medical School. He has published 24 peer-reviewed original scientific papers and numerous abstracts and case reports. He currently serves on Free Now Foundation Board of Directors.
Thank you for the work you’re doing!
It is time to terminate all medical mandates. Childhood illnesses and conditions that were rare in the past have become normal. Only parents should decide with their doctors.
If a vaccine for a particular disease is effective, any family that wants to protect their school student in a California school from that disease can get the child vaccinated. Scientifically, an effective vaccine should then protect any vaccinated student, leaving alone all unvaccinated students who wish to take their chances. It is obvious that many vaccines are not anywhere near 100% or even 80% or 50% effective is the sticking point in this issue. To even begin to evaluate the success of a vaccine to encourage families to get their children vaccinated depends on the freedom of choice over getting the shot, not compulsory mandates regardless of assumptions of safety and effectiveness which allergies become the unknown hiccup in the equation.
Thank you for all your hard work. The simple answer is that no proper (gold standard) safety testing has EVER been done, and that was proven by RFK Jr. and Del Bigtree. Not to mention that a virus has never been isolated using the proper method of Koch’s Postulates. Virology and Epidemiology are basically witch-doctor science and are avenues to make HUGE sums of $$$$$$$$$$ without much concern for the recipients of these neurotoxic bioweapons. Y’all will be GLAD to know that when Chad Bianco is Governor, and he will be, then he’ll overturn 276/277 in California, and I really do believe he’s gonna be making a TON of arrests of these criminals (Dr. Pan, etc., etc.).
https://www.facebook.com/ABC7/posts/pfbid02nPFh1MzEF3RsyfutFEPi2ZEJ6SgY5YTaWNTjA8AxJCkrerjBUfwbuVEmo554xT1wl
Thank you Dr Fox and Free Now for making this case. Little babies get way too many vaccines, with way too many toxins, way too soon and all at once. its a no brainer for anyone with intelligence and common sense to see that this barrage of unsafety tested vaccines is poisoning them and causing Autism and other health issues. None of these witches brews should be mandated before children can go to school. Some of my grand kids have been home schooled because of these mandates. I support what RFK jr is doing and MAHA and CHD, Del Bigtree and Aaron Siri, Dr Robert Malone, the new ACIP and all in the health space working for the Health, Well Being and Freedom of Humanity.
Thank you so very, very much! This is huge for all parents and for doctors as well.
maybe you can read The Contagion Myth by Dr. Thomas Cowan ..page 163 there is NO COVID 19 VIRUS… plus i personally have had ZERO VACCINES INCLUDING AT BIRTH..i am perfectly health (77 yrs )
I’ve read it and am a huge fan of Dr. Tom Cowan, Dr. Kaufman, the Baileys et al.
how about NEW YORK?? save us too!