The Network for Public Health Law monitors key court cases and relevant judicial trends in public health. The Network’s monthly reporter, Judicial Trends in Public Health (JTPH), highlights select published cases in public health law and policy from the prior three months. These cases are organized below by name, issuing court, date of issuance, along with a brief synopsis, and include link to the case abstract and hyperlink to the full decisions (when publicly available). For more information, including a topic digest of these and other cases, see below. Questions, comments, thoughts? Contact the Network for more information. Texas Health Huguley, Inc. v. Jones (Tex. Ct. App., Nov. 18, 2021): The Texas Court of Appeals overturned a trial court decision ordering a hospital to grant temporary hospital privileges to a physician who would prescribe and administer ivermectin, a drug typically used to eliminate parasitic worms (and not FDA approved for COVID-19), to treat plaintiff Jones’s husband for COVID-19. Read the abstract here. Missouri v. Biden (U.S. District Court, E.D. Mo., Nov. 29, 2021): A federal judge temporarily blocked a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate for certain health care workers in ten states. Read the abstract here. Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. Biden, et al. (U.S. District Court, E.D. Ky., Nov. 30, 2021): A federal judge in Kentucky temporarily blocked the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors from going into effect in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, ruling that the requirement exceeded President Biden’s authority. Read the abstract here. Duncan v. Bonta (U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, Nov. 30, 2021): The 9th Circuit, in a 7-4 decision, upheld California’s ban on high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, reversing a district judge’s decision—and a previous decision by a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel—that the state statute violated gun owners’ Second Amendment rights. Read the abstract here. Oklahoma v. Johnson & Johnson (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, Nov. 9, 2021): The Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned a $465 million judgment which determined that pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) had contributed to the opioid epidemic through its deceptive marketing practices. Read the abstract here. Crawford v. Marriott Hotel Services Inc. (U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, Nov. 1, 2021): The 11th Circuit ruled that under Georgia law Marriott did not owe a duty to warn a hotel patron with a seafood allergy that her chicken entrée contained crabmeat. Read the abstract here. CVS Pharmacy, LLC v. Carmichael (Court of Appeals of Georgia, Nov. 1, 2021): A Georgia appellate court upheld a trial court’s $42,750,000 verdict against CVS Pharmacy in a premises liability case, holding that a customer shot by a robber in the pharmacy’s parking lot could be awarded damages because his injury was foreseeable, and a reasonable jury could have found that CVS was at fault. Read the abstract here. Breeze Smoke, LLC v. FDA (U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit, Nov. 12, 2021): The 6th Circuit rejected a vape company’s request to block the FDA’s denial of their application and to be permitted to continue to sell their products. Read the abstract here. Estate of Joseph Maglioli v. Alliance HC Holdings, LLC (U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit, Oct. 20, 2021): The 3rd Circuit found that federal courts lacked jurisdiction over negligence claims against a group of nursing homes related to their failure to protect residents from COVID-19. Read the abstract here. E.T. v. Paxton (U.S. District Court, W.D. Tex., Nov. 10, 2021; stayed Dec. 1, 2021, U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit): The 5th Circuit stayed a federal district court decision permanently blocking Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting school mask mandates in the state. Read the abstract here.
TOPICS: These and other cases are organized on the Network website under the topics below (adapted from chapter titles in Public Health Law in a Nutshell (3rd Edition) by James G. Hodge, Jr., Director, Network for Public Health Law—Western Region). Select a topic below to view all cases under that topic.
JTPH is a collaboration of the Network’s Western and Eastern Region Offices led by Editor-in Chief, Jennifer Piatt, JD, Deputy Director, Western Region Office. Additional Western Region contributors include James G. Hodge, Jr., JD, LLM, Erica N. White, JD, Rebecca Freed, and Nora Wells. Eastern Region contributors include Kathi Hoke, JD, Morgan Jones, JD, and Brianne Schell, JD, MA.
Legal information or guidance provided in this transmission or website does not constitute legal advice or representation. For legal advice, please consult specific legal counsel in your state.
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