ABSTRACT
This paper summarizes key shifts in judicial decisions relating to public health powers during the pandemic and the implications of those decisions for public health practice. Then, it gives a preview and call for partnership in developing a legal framework for authority that guides public health to better activities, processes, and accountability in service of the public's health.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Public Health , Humans , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , United States , Pandemics/legislation & jurisprudence , Judicial RoleSubject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2 , United States , COVID-19 VaccinesABSTRACT
Public health legal powers are increasingly under pressure from the courts in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and organizations successfully challenged many community mitigation orders (for example, mask mandates, vaccination mandates, and restrictions on gatherings), demonstrating the legal vulnerability of disease control measures. Analyzing 112 judicial decisions in which the plaintiff prevailed from March 2020 through March 2023, we examined the ways in which courts constrained public health powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that in these 112 decisions, courts shifted how they analyze religious liberty claims and reviewed challenges to the exercise of statutory powers by health officials in novel ways. We discuss implications for public health policy going forward, and we recommend ways in which legislatures and health officials can design policies to maximize their prospects of surviving legal challenges.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Health Policy , Public Health , Humans , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , United States , Health Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Policy Making , Pandemics/prevention & control , Pandemics/legislation & jurisprudence , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
This JAMA Forum discusses Title VII challenges to vaccination mandates, the Groff v DeJoy decision, and the implications of the decision for health care employers.
ABSTRACT
Clinicians using governing authority to make public health policy are ethically obliged to draw upon scientific and clinical information that accords with professional standards. Just as the First Amendment does not protect clinicians who provide advice that fails to express standard care, so it does not protect clinician-officials who offer information to the public that a reasonable official would not provide.
Subject(s)
Liability, Legal , Public Policy , Humans , Social ResponsibilityABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in the United States at all levels of government utilized their legal authorities to impose a wide range of measures designed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; the causative agent of COVID-19), including shutting down businesses, limiting the size of gatherings, requiring masking, and mandating vaccination. These orders and regulations were challenged in court cases that resulted in more than 1000 judicial decisions. Common claims were based on alleged procedural and substantive due process violations, violations of religious liberty, and violations of officials' scope of authority. In more than three fourths of the decisions, the court refused to grant the plaintiffs the relief sought. However, plaintiffs found success in several notable cases, especially in federal court. These recent decisions, as well as broader prepandemic trends, have important implications for public health officials' exercise of their public health powers, especially when those exercises implicate religious liberty. In this legal environment, officials may need to rely more on the powers of persuasion than on their legal authority alone. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(3):280-287. https://doi.org/10.2105/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307181).
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , Civil Rights , COVID-19/prevention & control , Pandemics/prevention & control , Public Health , SARS-CoV-2 , United States/epidemiologySubject(s)
Civil Rights/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , COVID-19/prevention & control , Constitution and Bylaws , Federal Government , Humans , Mandatory Programs/legislation & jurisprudence , State Government , United StatesSubject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , Commerce/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Mandatory Programs/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Supreme Court Decisions , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/legislation & jurisprudence , COVID-19/diagnosis , Humans , Mandatory Programs/trends , Mandatory Testing/legislation & jurisprudence , United StatesABSTRACT
This article analyzes the Supreme Court's "shadow docket" Free Exercise cases relating to COVID-19. The paper highlights the decline of deference, the impact of exemptions, and the implications of the new doctrine for vaccine and other public health laws.