To Our Friends and Colleagues in the Federal Service

By Scott Burris

Take-no-prisoners politics has been succeeded by hostage-taking politics. The metaphor could go a few ways, but in the most concrete sense the hostages are you, our friends and colleagues who work for the public’s health as federal civil servants.  You, who often accept smaller salaries and more spartan working conditions than you could enjoy in the private sector or academia; you, who devote your passions and considerable abilities to the cause of public good; you, who have already had to endure arbitrary furloughs and budget cuts that make it harder for you to do your jobs — you are the ones who are now being left on your own with the injury of no paycheck and the  insult of a lot of politicians and pundits saying that you aren’t really needed anyway.

I won’t apologize, because this is not the work, or the desire, of the citizenry. This is the work of a small faction of the far political right. I will say how sorry I am, how ashamed I am as the citizen of a once-serious country, that you are being treated this way, and how much I appreciate the dedication that is keeping you in your vital work.

P.S. As to the people who have taken us past the brink, the best I have to offer is a little political economy from our classic public health law case, Jacobson v. Mass.  You have every right to oppose the Affordable Care Act, and to use all democratic means to roll it back,

But the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. On any other basis organized society could not exist with safety to its members. Society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.  

Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research

Based at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, the Center for Public Health Law Research supports the widespread adoption of scientific tools and methods for mapping and evaluating the impact of law on health. It works by developing and teaching public health law research and legal epidemiology methods (including legal mapping and policy surveillance); researching laws and policies that improve health, increase access to care, and create or remove barriers to health (e.g., laws or policies that create or remove inequity); and communicating and disseminating evidence to facilitate innovation.

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