Tag: Public Health Law

U.S. Supreme Court

Context Matters: Affirmative Action, Public Health, and the Use of Population-Level Data

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By Wendy E. Parmet, Elaine Marshall & Alisa K. Lincoln

Last June, in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the Supreme Court ruled that universities could not consider race in admitting students. In support of that decision, the Court dismissed the relevance of data about the varied experiences of racial groups, insisting that admissions decisions must be based solely on the experiences and merits of individual applicants. The Court’s rejection of group-level data evinces a critical misunderstanding about the uses and limits of such data that, if applied more broadly, portends troubling implications for health equity and health policy.

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Hands with blue protective nitride gloves holding N95 respirator.

A Patient’s Right to Masked Health Care Providers

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By Katherine A. Macfarlane

In May 2023, Mass General Brigham instructed its patients that they “cannot ask staff members to wear a mask because our policies no longer require it.”

Following patient protests, the hospital updated its policies with an imperfect fix, announcing that “patients can ask, but providers determine when and if masking in a particular situation is clinically necessary.”

This episode highlights the uneasy circumstances that people with disabilities face in the U.S. while accessing essential care: On the one hand, the law surrounding reasonable modifications in health care is well-settled. On the other, the practical reality of U.S. health care leaves little room for individualized accommodation and self-advocating patients vulnerable to retaliation.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 4, 2021. People waiting for their turn to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at the Club Atlético River Plate Microstadium.

Considerations from Argentina on the Judicial Control of Public Health Policies

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By María Natalia Echegoyemberry and Francisco Verbic

This article looks at the COVID-19 pandemic response in Argentina, with a particular focus on the judicial control of public health policies. Looking ahead, we discuss the mechanisms that need to be implemented in order to avoid undue judicial interference, which is particularly critical in countries like Argentina, where the Judiciary is delegitimized and strongly questioned.

We focus on a case in Argentina where a federal judge ordered the suspension of the campaign for pediatric vaccination against COVID-19.

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Public toilet that is bright and clean with a male-female sign and the toilet for the disabled is clearly distinguished.

Trans-antagonism Creates Space for the Worst Side of the Law

Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research Leave a comment

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.

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Gavel and stethoscope.

Public Health Law and Civil Rights Laws Must Work Together to Rise to the Challenge of Long COVID

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Elizabeth Pendo

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the need for public health laws and policies that align with and reinforce civil rights protections for disproportionately impacted populations is greater than ever. In particular, disability rights laws will be critical for responding to the millions of Americans who experience lasting or recurring symptoms after acute COVID-19 infection (commonly referred to as “long COVID”). This article will discuss the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in protecting the rights of people with long COVID and other disabilities in the workplace, in health care, and in disability and other benefits in order to chart an equitable path forward.

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Gas stove burner with burning gas. Sale and purchase of gas fuel.

The Public Health Case Against Gas Appliances

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By Heather Payne and Jennifer D. Oliva

Gas appliances pose a grave danger to tenant health and safety.

In a forthcoming article, we argue that the mere presence of natural gas appliances in the home renders a dwelling uninhabitable due to their potential health harms. We further contend that tenants should invoke the implied warranty of habitability to eliminate the continued exposure to natural gas appliance-generated indoor air pollutants.

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Gavel lying in a courtroom.

Improving the Future of Public Health by Applauding Appropriate Judicial Oversight

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Marshall B. Kapp

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Health Establishment (PHE)/legal enterprise collaborative fell short of constitutional standards in a number of situations, resulting in adverse judicial rulings of which the PHE and its like-minded academic advocates now complain.

This unhappiness with judicial oversight is an opportunity for introspection. Rather than blaming nefarious or deplorable other forces, a better approach to rehabilitating and enhancing public health law in the future lies instead in the PHE taking stock of itself and committing to a more open-minded, humility infused, and objective approach to the definition of science, the role of expertise, and the better targeted and clearly justified employment of legal force in the next major public health emergency context.

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