By Sterling Johnson
Not since the 1960s have we seen the terms of Black history been this contested among legislators and school districts. Three years after the George Floyd riots and our own national reckoning, we continue to watch explicit attacks on the teaching of critical race theory, but also more integration of Black history into the national story — with Florida’s legislative history serving as a primary landscape for this cultural battle.
By Adam Herpolsheimer
By no means the first foray into gender identity-based discrimination, the legacy of North Carolina’s HB2 (2016) — known colloquially as the bathroom bill — is one we cannot shake. The law has since been repealed but was ultimately a turning point for what was possible in terms of legal action against the trans community. HB2 was particularly bothersome and ill-advised because of the legal mechanism it used to achieve its goals: preemption.
By Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research
Hilary Wething, PhD, is an assistant professor of public policy and a Jackman-McCourtney Early Career Professor at Penn State University. Her research examines the relationship between economic volatility and labor market policy, household decision-making, and social safety-net programs.
Dr. Wething’s research published in the Journal of Public Health Policy investigates the impact of the generosity, inclusion, and autonomy of state paid sick leave laws on influenza-like-illness (ILI) rates and its components using data from the Centers for Disease Control and CPHLR’s data on state-level paid sick leave statues.
We asked Dr. Wething a few questions about this work.
By Laura Hannon and Alex Willhouse
An estimated 65 percent of the United States prison population has an active substance use disorder (SUD). Providing comprehensive substance use treatment to incarcerated individuals has been shown to reduce both drug use and crime upon release. Treatment is a critical intervention to prevent opioid overdose deaths, which the CDC estimates increased by 15.4 percent, from 70,029 in 2020 to approximately 80,816 in 2021. Medications like methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone are an important part of a comprehensive approach to addressing opioid use disorder (OUD).
By Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research
As a federal program to serve meals to all U.S. public school students during the COVID-19 pandemic ends on June 30, the consequences of unpaid school meal debt will resurface for the millions of students nationwide facing food insecurity.
New data released on LawAtlas.org capture details of state unpaid school meal policies and reveals sparse and variable protections for students who cannot pay for meals at school.
By Scott Burris
As we look toward National Public Health Week amid two long years of a pandemic, reflection for us at the Center for Public Health Law Research has focused on how we move forward in a mostly broken public health system. We see public health law as a central component of a strong future for public health, where transdisciplinary partnership leads the way.
By Katie Moran-McCabe
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, legislators in almost every state have introduced bills that would limit state executive authority to respond to the current pandemic or future public health emergencies. Between January 1, 2021, and November 5, 2021, one or more of these bills were enacted into law and became effective in 19 states.
This finding is a product of a new legal mapping method called Sentinel Surveillance of Emerging Laws and Policies (SSELP), developed by researchers from our Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University (CPHLR), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
This mapping method is intended to quickly capture and track emerging laws and legal innovations impacting public health, and to instigate faster evaluation of their effects on health and health equity.
By Zoey Binder
The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was highly criticized this year for an alleged lack of enforcement and failure to protect workers from unsafe working conditions related to COVID-19.
Of particular concern has been its failure to exert authority over the meatpacking industry, whose workers have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
By Marissa Schwartz
Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD), sometimes referred to as Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), is a life-saving, evidence-based treatment method considered the gold standard for addressing opioid use disorders. Unfortunately, however, there are a number of barriers — both legal and cultural — that prevent some patients from accessing the treatment they need.
MOUD combines the use of prescription medications (like buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone) with counseling and behavioral therapies to provide comprehensive treatment in an inpatient or outpatient setting.
Due to stigma toward MOUD from patients and providers, as well as an overall lack of providers certified to dispense MOUD, there are currently more prescribing rules in the U.S. for the drugs used in MOUD, like buprenorphine, than for opioids. Major legal barriers include provider limits on the number of patients to whom they can offer MOUD, restrictions on which facilities can provide in-patient MOUD treatment, and insurance pre-authorization requirements.
New data from the Center for Public Health Law Research captures the wide variety of mitigation policies from all 50 states and DC intended to prevent further spread and lessen the potential impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
This data currently includes orders and laws from 20 states from January 20, 2020 through April 30, 2020. Laws and orders from the remaining 30 states and DC will be added in the coming weeks.