News & Insights

Pride Month is a celebration by and among individuals and communities of sometimes-hard-won acceptance and affirmation of sexual orientation and gender identity, by and among individuals and communities. This month, Network attorneys highlight recent law and policy developments related to health equity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Parents want to ensure the safety of their children whenever they are passengers in their vehicles by using appropriate car seats or booster seats. Every state has laws regarding child safety restraints for young children while riding in a motor vehicle. However, what happens when parents of young children travel? Rideshares, like Uber and Lyft, are an attractive way to get from the airport to a hotel or other destination. Unfortunately, the requirements around using child safety restraints in rideshares vary by state and are often vague.

Some of the public health law and policy issues in the headlines in recent weeks include HIPAA and proof of vaccination; colleges’ vaccination plans; racial disparities in vaccination rates; possible changes to governors’ authority during future public health emergencies; the relationship between COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic; and the Department of Health and Human Services’ strategy to increase vaccination rates.

The Network is proud to announce our new project with The Kresge Foundation to provide legal capacity building and technical assistance to the Foundation’s Emerging Leaders in Public Health Initiative.

The New Era of Smarter Food Safety Initiative released by the agency in June of 2020 serves as the blueprint for the FDA’s approach to food safety over the next decade. While it builds on the foundation created by the 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act, the Initiative represents a new approach to food safety that will leverage technology and data to create a safer food system.

At least 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering measures to limit severely the legal authority of public health agencies to protect the public from serious illness, injury, and death. This new report released by the Network and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), provides an overview of public health authority and its important role in protecting the health of communities, as well as examples of specific laws that would limit public health authority.

It’s essential to rethink suicide prevention that involves the use of police, and to forge a new path forward that does not result in additional trauma or even death of the very persons whose life—and quality of life—suicide prevention advocates are seeking to protect.

Requiring mask-wearing and maintaining social distancing are no more intrusive than restrictions citizens already experience, including use of seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, and DUI laws. Just as significant, these orders are designed to protect others from harm. 

The Network for Public Health Law seeks a Senior Attorney. This position will provide legal technical assistance and consulting, conduct training, develop educational materials, and facilitate opportunities for networking and peer assistance on legal issues that affect public health agencies and the broader public health system.

Despite repeated attacks by opponents in the past 10 years, the ACA has not only survived – it has thrived. Because of the law, millions of people gained insurance coverage for the first time. Millions more have increased security when insured, benefitting from prohibitions on discrimination by insurers and protections for people with preexisting conditions. In this commentary, Sarah Somers, J.D., M.P.H., managing attorney at the Network’s Southeastern Region Office, reflects on a decade of significant events and greatest successes in the ACA’s history, and provides a preview of things to come.

Since as early as 2008, we have known the integral role the Social Determinants of Health (SDOHs) play in health outcomes. However, it was not until 2020 that Congress acknowledged public health’s important role in “working across sectors on social determinants of health” and funded an SDOH pilot program. Although the project is a step in the right direction, we must also support policies and legislation that directly addresses the SDOHs, including the Improving Social Determinants of Health Act of 2021 recently reintroduced to the House of Representatives.

Some of the public health law and policy issues in the headlines in recent weeks include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s move to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars; President Biden’s plan to strengthen America's digital infrastructure; new federal guidelines to increase access to an important Opioid use disorder treatment; threats and harassment directed at public health officials due to COVID-19; the corrosive impact of racism on the health of Black Americans; how public health can be improved by addressing climate change; and Oregon’s newly passed legislation designed to help prevent youth suicide.