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Article
Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2022-2023
James G. Hodge Jr. and Leila Barraza et al.
51 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 684 (2023)
 
Open Access

Abstract:

In another tumultuous term of the United States Supreme Court in 2022-2023 a series of critical cases implicate instant and forthcoming changes in multiple fronts that collectively shift the national public health law and policy environment. As examined in this article across 10 core public health law themes, SCOTUS (1) upended affirmative action policies, (2) skirted past social media liability for misinformation, (3) reduced criminal liability for cyberthreats, (4) opened health care and public health agencies to newfound claims, (5) injected itself into medication abortion debates, (6) denied executive authority to forgive federal student loan debts, (7) re-defined the breadth of First Amendment religious freedoms, (8) assessed discriminatory impacts of racial redistricting, (9) rejected federal obligations to assure water rights for tribal nations, and (10) avoided resolving immigration policies tied to public health emergency powers. For a Court persistently mired in controversy and disapproval among Americans, this term breaks new ground yet again in the ever-changing public health legal landscape.
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