Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T14:50:37.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reclaiming Public Health Authority: Toward a Legal Framework that Centers the Public’s Health, in the Courts and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2024

Abstract

This paper summarizes key shifts in judicial decisions relating to public health powers during the pandemic and the implications of those decisions for public health practice. Then, it gives a preview and call for partnership in developing a legal framework for authority that guides public health to better activities, processes, and accountability in service of the public’s health.

Type
Symposium Articles
Copyright
© ChangeLab Solutions and the Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Support and Resources for Strengthening Public Health Protections, Act for Public Health, available at <https://actforpublichealth.org> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
Public Health Litigation Tracking, Public Health Law Watch, available at <https://www.publichealthlawwatch.org/actforpublichealth/litigationtracking> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
S. Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 140 S. Ct. 1613, 1613–14 (2020) (Roberts, C.J., concurring) (citations omitted).Google Scholar
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905); Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990); Parmet, W.E., “The COVID Cases: A Preliminary Assessment of Judicial Review of Public Health Powers During a Partisan and Polarized Pandemic,” San Diego Law Review 57, no. 4 (2020): 9991048.Google Scholar
Roman Cath. Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63 (2020) (per curiam).Google Scholar
Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294 (2021) (per curiam).Google Scholar
Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984).Google Scholar
Ala. Ass’n Realtors v. Dep’t Health & Hum. Servs., 141 S. Ct. 2485, 2489 (2021) (per curiam) (quoting U.S. Forest Serv. v. Cowpasture River Pres. Ass’n, 140 S. Ct. 1837, 1850 (2020)).Google Scholar
Nat’l Fed. Indep. Bus. v. Dep’t Labor, 595 U.S. 109 (2022) (per curiam).Google Scholar
E.g., Health Freedom Def. Fund v. Biden, 599 F. Supp. 3d 1144 (M.D. Fla. 2022) (transportation mask mandate); Georgia v President of the United States, 46 F.4th 1283 (11th Cir. 2022) (vaccine mandate for federal contractors); Feds for Med. Freedom v. Biden, 63 F.4th 366 (5th Cir. 2023) (vaccine mandate for federal employees).Google Scholar
Parmet, W.E. and Khalik, F., “Judicial Review of Public Health Powers Since the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trends and Implications,” American Journal of Public Health 113, no. 3 (2023): 280287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
E.g., W. Virginia v. Env’t Prot. Agency, 142 S. Ct. 2587, 2610, 2614 (2022).Google Scholar
National Conference of State Legislatures, States with Religious and Philosophical Exemptions from School Immunization Requirements (August 3, 2023), available at <https://www.ncsl.org/health/states-with-religious-and-philosophical-exemptions-from-school-immunization-requirements> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
Reiss, D.R., “Vaccine Mandates and Religion: Where are We Headed with the Current Supreme Court?Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 49, no. 4 (2021): 552563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borsage v. Edney, No. 1:22-cv-00233-HSO-BWR, 2023 WL 5598983 (S.D. Miss. Aug. 29, 2023); Fox v. Makin, No. 2:22-cv-00251-GZS, 2023 WL 5279518 (D. Me. Aug. 16, 2023).Google Scholar
We the Patriots USA, Inc. v. Connecticut Off. of Early Childhood Dev., 76 F.4th 130, 147–56 (2d Cir. 2023).Google Scholar
Braidwood Mgmt. Inc. v. Becerra, No. 4:20-CV-00283-O, 2023 WL 2703229 (N.D. Tex. Mar. 30, 2023), appeal docketed, No. 23-10326 (5th Cir. Apr. 3, 2023) (holding that the provision relating to certain preventive services under the ACA is unconstitutional); All. for Hippocratic Med. v. U.S. Food & Drug Admin., 78 F.4th 210 (5th Cir. 2023), petition for cert. filed (U.S. Oct. 12, 2023) (No. 23-395) (finding that decision by FDA to expand license for mifepristone was arbitrary and capricious).Google Scholar
New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022); Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo, 45 F.4th 359 (D.C. Cir. 2022), cert. granted in part sub nom. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 143 S. Ct. 2429 (U.S. May 1, 2023) (No. 22-451); see also Relentless, Inc. v. United States Dep’t of Com., 62 F.4th 621, 625 (1st Cir. 2023), cert. granted in part sub nom. Relentless, Inc. v. Dep’t of Com., 2023 WL 6780370 (U.S. Oct. 13, 2023) (No. 22-1219).Google Scholar
Briggs, D.H., Platt, E., and Zellers, L.. ”Recent State Legislative Attempts to Restructure Public Health Authority: The Good, The Bad, and The Way Forward,“ Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 52, no. 1S (2024): 4348; see also Preserving Local Public Health Powers (2022), ChangeLab Solutions, available at <https://www.changelabsolutions.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/Ensure-Public-Health-Can-Continue-to-Protect-Well-Being_FINAL_20221007A.pdf> (last visited December 4, 2023).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Krieger, N. et al., “Relationship of Political Ideology of US Federal and State Elected Officials and Key COVID Pandemic Outcomes Following Vaccine Rollout to Adults: April 2021–March 2022,” The Lancet Regional HealthAmericas 16 (2022), available at <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22002010> (last visited December 4, 2023); J. VanDusky-Allen and O. Shvetsova, How America’s Partisan Divide over Pandemic Responses Played Out in the States, The Conversation (May 21, 2021), available at <https://theconversation.com/how-americas-partisan-divide-over-pandemic-responses-played-out-in-the-states-157565> (last visited December 4, 2023); X. Zhang et al., “Factors Limiting US Public Health Emergency Authority during COVID-19,” The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 38, no. 5 (2023): 1569–1582.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Innovative Laws and Policies for a Post-Pandemic Public Health System (2023), Network for Public Health Law, available at <https://www.networkforphl.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Innovative-Laws-and-Policies-for-a-Post-Pandemic-Public-Health-System.pdf> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
The Foundational Public Health Services (February 2022), Public Health Accreditation Board, available at <https://phaboard.org/center-for-innovation/public-health-frameworks/the-foundational-public-health-services/#iLightbox[69762ea8409286bd409]/0> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
Social Determinants of Health, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, available at <https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health> (last visited December 4, 2023).+(last+visited+December+4,+2023).>Google Scholar
A Blueprint for Changemakers: Achieving Health Equity Through Law & Policy (2019), ChangeLab Solutions, available at <https://www.changelabsolutions.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/Blueprint-For-Changemakers_FINAL_201904.pdf> (last visited December 4, 2023)+(last+visited+December+4,+2023)>Google Scholar