Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The Courts Strike Back, Lance Plunkett Jd, Llm

The New York State Dental Journal

Issues of water fluoridation and noncompete agreements continue to undergo legal scrutiny, with no clear-cut answers in the offing.

Antiracist Medicine In Colorblind Courts, Govind Persad

Michigan Law Review

This Article considers how health professionals’ efforts to combat racial health inequities interact with legal restrictions constraining their ability to consider race. In light of the Roberts Court’s recent invalidation of two university admissions programs, intensifying a “colorblind” judicial shift, the collision between antiracist medicine and colorblind law is a pressing concern. This Article anticipates the implications of this collision and explores how health professionals and systems can design programs that survive judicial examination.

In Part I, the Article examines the frameworks that will apply if antiracist medicine faces legal challenges. These include the Equal Protection Clause and federal statutes …

The Courts, Congress, And The Bureau Of Prisons: Using The First Step Act As An Impetus For Accountability And Legal Reform Of The Federal Carceral System, Sarah E. Ryan

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

On December 18, 2018, the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, or First Step Act, became law. The Act reflected decades of social, racial, and economic justice advocacy and years of legislative work. In the five years preceding the Act’s passage, lawmakers built a new case for criminal justice reform.

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From 2018 to today, the First Step Act has galvanized discussions about what comes next in criminal justice reform. Most observers have criticized the limited architecture and implementation of the Act, but some have hailed the Act’s utility during the COVID-19 pandemic and …

Equalizing Disproportionate Death And Punishment In Black And Brown Communities: An Emergency Shutdown On Death, Inequality, And Deliberate Indifference, Angela Dixon

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

According to an old saying, “death is the great equalizer.” But is it? It may be in the sense that absent a contravening force, it is an appointment that all must keep. Yet data indicates that all do not die equally. Socioeconomic status (“SES”), which includes levels of occupation, education, income, and wealth, all delay or advance mortality. People of a higher SES outlive, generally, people of a lower SES; moreover, such disparities continue to widen as trends of income inequality intensify.

Perhaps predictably, race, just like class, exacerbates inequities. Black Americans in the United States remain the pivotal …

Developing Thick Skin: Pediatric Eczema In Vulnerable Communities And Fda Regulation Of Cosmetic Products, Abayomi Jones Md, Jd

Journal of Law and Health

Eczema is a common yet serious inflammatory skin condition affecting millions of children in the United States. Dark skin and/or African-American ethnicity are risk factors for increased eczema severity, most likely due to systemic racism expressed as lower socioeconomic status, increased environmental toxin exposure, decreased access to adequate medical care, and infrequent implementation of early intervention practices. Skin-directed management of eczema for caregivers is critically important for improving clinical outcomes of children with eczema. Skin-directed management of eczema includes avoidance of allergens and appropriate moisturization of skin, which warrants evaluation of cosmetic products like lotions, creams and oils essential for …

Transcript: Structural Racism, The Healthcare System And Health Justice, Ruquaiijah Yearby

Journal of Law and Health

The following is a transcript from Racial Disparities and Outcomes presented at Cleveland State University College of Law by the Journal of Law and Health on Friday, February 9, 2024. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and to reflect updates in the relevant law since the time of transcription.

Covid-19 And Access To Healthcare At The Crossing Of Race, Poverty, And Rurality, Shavonnie R. Carthens

Journal of Law and Health

Black Americans make up 7.7 percent of the rural population in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic many in this population found themselves at a unique intersection of inequity - being Black, poor, and residing in a rural area. Poverty is a known contributor to negative health outcomes and is a risk factor for death from coronavirus infection. The association between race and poverty, when examining infectivity and mortality rates of COVID-19, have disproportionately devastated Black Americans and other minorities. Further, research indicates the presence of a general “rural mortality penalty” wherein rural Black communities have higher death rates …

Transcript: Patient Reported Outcome Measures, Dr. Sharona Hoffman

Journal of Law and Health

The following is a transcript from Racial Disparities and Outcomes presented at Cleveland State University College of Law by the Journal of Law and Health on Friday, February 9, 2024. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and to reflect updates in the relevant law since the time of transcription.

Transcript: Rethinking Federalism In Health Care, Allison Whelan

Journal of Law and Health

The following is a transcript from Racial Disparities and Outcomes presented at Cleveland State University College of Law by the Journal of Law and Health on Friday, February 9, 2024. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and to reflect updates in the relevant law since the time of transcription.

Countering Workplace Wellness Bias Through Wellness-Legal Partnerships, Barbara J. Zabawa Jd, Mph

Journal of Law and Health

In the current United States economy, wellness is predominantly marketed to society’s privileged individuals, catering to a mostly white and high-income clientele. When marginalized communities encounter wellness services, such as in the workplace, they are faced with an implicitly biased industry. These biases include an emphasis on individual behavior change without considering social determinants of health (SDOH), cultural appropriation of wellness activities for capitalistic gain, use of biased health measures like Body-Mass Index (BMI), and constant images of and expectations of achieving a stereotypical healthy body. The legal community must wake up to these biases and advocate for more equitable …

Medical Consensus On Gender Affirming Care's Critical Impact On Incarcerated Black Transgender Women, John Parsi

Journal of Law and Health

In Kosilek v. Spencer the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit adopted The World Professional Association of Transgender Health Standards of Care (WPATH SOC) as medical consensus on gender affirming care and held that Michelle Kosilek could access gender affirming care but that she did not meet the criteria for gender affirming surgery. In Gibson v. Collier the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit with a sparse record and no expert testimony denied Vanessa Lynn Gibson access to gender affirming surgery and incorrectly claimed that Kosilek did not support the WPATH SOC as representing the medical …

Unshackled: Why Eliminating Health Disparities Requires That Our Criminal Justice System Set Incarcerated Mothers And Their Developing Children Free, Angela Dixon

Journal of Law and Health

Incarceration of pregnant nonviolent offenders takes not only the pregnant mother captive but also her unborn child. Kept in unnecessary captivity, these innocent children may experience adverse childhood experiences (“ACES”) or lifelong damage to their physical and mental health. The experiences may be the same for children born already to the mother, as they endure the suffering of parental separation during the mother’s absence. In terms of racial health disparities, such captivity presents at least a triple threat—harm to the health of the mother, harm to the health of the unborn fetus, and harm to the health of children born …

Gut Check: Why Obesity Is Not A Disability Under Tennessee Law And How The Legislature Can Address The Obesity Epidemic, Jennifer Vallor

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Clinical Use Of Placebos: Medicine, Neuroscience, Ethics And The Law, Steven B. Perlmutter

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

My patient, a twenty-eight year old woman, presented with a three-week history of constant twitching of her left lower eyelid. She found it distracting and annoying, albeit it did not impair her vision. She had no other ocular symptomatology. Past ocular and medical histories were unremarkable, and she took no medications. She was preoccupied with a toxic divorce, which was traumatizing her eight-year-old son. She noted difficulty falling and staying asleep. Six weeks prior, her internist pronounced her a healthy but stressed woman. My examination revealed left lower orbicularis myokymia, i.e., spontaneous, involuntary twitching of the left lower eyelid. Her …

Covid-19 And The Populist Governments Approach To Pandemic Management: A Nuanced Analysis, Fozia Nazir Lone, Anthony Carty

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

This article addresses international law discourse in the post- COVID-19 era. The first part engages with questions about China, its liability, and the complex legal discourse on causation. The present position of the WHO is that COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus like SARS. The nature of the spillover event remains unclear, but the first human case was identified at some point in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. For the reasons outlined in Part I, the scholarly consensus has been that claims against China appear unjustifiable. The two case studies in Part II demonstrate the factors involved in local pandemic management …

When “The Right To Life” Forgoes Quality Of Life: Examining The Public Policy Impacts Of Mississippi’S Abortion Ban On Women Post-Dobbs, Eleanor Condelles

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court eliminated the right to abortion. Its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. overturned Roe v. Wade and was the culmination of a decades-long attack on abortion rights and accessibility. Without a federal abortion standard, it is now up to each state to determine women’s access to abortion. This system will produce a tiered structure of abortion access, causing significant health and socioeconomic burdens for women generally and reinforcing fundamental social inequities. Women of means will find ways around the Dobbs decision; others, who lack finances, childcare, or the ability to travel …

Florida’S Privacy Paradox, Emily Grady

University of Miami Law Review

For almost half a century, Floridians have enjoyed a right to privacy specially guaranteed to them by the Florida constitution. This broad right to privacy, pre-Dobbs, guaranteed several specific rights like the right to have an abortion, the right to be left alone in one’s own home, and the right to be able to direct the upbringing of one’s children, amongst other rights. Despite the fact that these specific rights were nestled in the same broad right to privacy, their treatment has been far from similar in recent years in Florida.

This Note examines the evolution of Florida’s …

Selected Indiana Government Statistical Agencies And Their Data, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides coverage of Indiana state government agencies statistics and selected Tippecanoe County, Indiana local government statistical publications. Presentation describes state agencies such as the Indiana Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health, Local Government Finance, and State Budget Agency. Examples of historical and current data are presented.

Lawyers, Guns, And Marijuana: How N.Y. State Rifle And Pistol Ass'n V. Bruen Is Shaping Federal Marijuana Law, Mia Cordle

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prescription Practices, Anti-Psychotics, And Covid-19: An Intersectional Examination Of The Long-Term Care Home Setting In Canada, Olivia Ramos

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

Public discourse and concern over the state of long-term care homes in Canada has been ongoing over the last two decades. One of the main sources of these concerns is the off-label prescription of anti-psychotic medications to long-term care home residents. Off-label use of pharmaceuticals is common and can be beneficial in certain contexts, however, there is a risk of anti-psychotics being used as an inappropriate means of managing patients chemically in the long-term care home setting. This paper engages in three lines of inquiry: first, the regulatory landscape of on and off-label prescription in Canada; second, the off-label use …

Fighting For Abortion Access In Canada: A Constitutional Analysis, Jordana Borzellino

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

Access to abortion is a controversial matter that creates a labyrinth of polarizing issues. Perspectives on abortion range from anathema to overzealous support, with stakeholders occasionally resorting to legal avenues to control access one way or another. This paper will explore the possibility of protecting and expanding access to abortion through constitutional mechanisms in the Canadian legal landscape. By analyzing Canada's current degree of access, this paper will explain that abortion services for those in need are inadequate. In order to advocate for greater access, this paper examines a multitude of legal tools and doctrines to constitutionally protect access to …

A Tale Of Two Bills: Lessons Learned In Expanding Pharmacist-Led Hiv Pre-Exposure And Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, Jennifer M. Cocohoba, Jerika Lam, Maria Lopez, Betty J. Dong

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

"In December 2023, JACCP published a content analysis of state legislative bills focused on expanding pharmacist scope of practice to provide human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).¹ All states permit pharmacists to prescribe under a collaborative practice agreement with approximately half of the states granting HIV PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) authority to prescribe either via legislation, standing orders, or statewide protocols.^2-4 New York was the first state to expand pharmacists' specific authority for HIV prevention in 2017; however, California was the first state to pass legislation with Senate Bill 159 …

Oliva Elected To American Law Institute, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Jenn Oliva, Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow, has been elected to the American Law Institute, the organization announced yesterday (Oct. 4).

She becomes the 18th member of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty to earn the prestigious recognition.

“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Oliva and we are proud to have her on our faculty,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa, who holds an ex officio role with the ALI. “Since Jenn joined us in 2023 she’s quickly become an invaluable member of the Maurer community and we’re thrilled to see her recognized.”

Two Lives, Shruti Trehan Mbbs

Journal of Wellness

A busy oncologist makes a decision to leave her busy, thriving, community practice in the Mid-West and moves to a Veterans Affairs hospital in South Florida in the quest for a better work-life balance.

Losing Lives Despite “Lifesaving” Exceptions: Examining The Fatal Flaws Of Vague Abortion Bans And The Spectrum Of Medical Decisionmaking In Cancer Care, Kiersten Wood

Vanderbilt Law Review

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court upended decades of precedent pertaining to reproductive health when it held that abortion fell outside the purview of constitutionally protected rights. Since then, conservative states have raced to institute stringent abortion bans, with many lacking explicit exceptions for pregnant individuals enduring medical emergencies that necessitate care. Ambiguous statutory language has induced a chilling effect in the medical arena, where providers risk criminal and civil liabilities by performing requested and medically recommended abortions for emergent patients when fetal development would risk the life of the pregnant individual. Seized in the crossfire of hyperpolarized politics, …

Dobbs And The Destabilization Of Clinical Trials, Allison M. Whelan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores an important yet overlooked collateral consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s elimination of the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization: the destabilization of clinical research. Specifically, this Article focuses on the harms to pregnant persons, persons capable of pregnancy, and persons of color that may transpire as a result of new barriers to clinical research in the aftermath of Dobbs. By hindering clinical research, these new obstacles will exacerbate existing health disparities experienced by these populations, which have historically been excluded from or exploited by the American healthcare and research systems.

This …

Labeling Energy Drinks: Tackling A Monster Of A Problem, Meredith P. Mulhern, Michael S. Sinha

All Faculty Scholarship

Energy drinks first rose to popularity in the 1980s. Red Bull energy drinks were the first of its kind, opening the door to a new consumer and regulatory landscape. Since Red Bull first launched, multiple companies have released countless new energy drink products. Some energy drinks, like Red Bull, contain less than 100 mg of caffeine per 8 oz can. However, other energy drinks contain much higher amounts of caffeine. A 12 oz can of Celsius contains 200 mg of caffeine, and up until recently, Celsius offered a product called Celsius Heat, a 12 oz can containing 300 mg of …

A Dynamic Alternative: Alumnus Thrives In International Trade Compliance, Catherine Deyarmond

Black History at St. Mary's University - 2025 Collection

Alum Robert Dunlap reflects on his time at St. Mary’s University in the International Relations Joint Degree Program and how it has set him up for his success in his chosen field. Dunlap’s dedication to his education and work has paid dividends in his professional career, allowing him to work in a San Antonio manufacturing business with ties to Mexico, but also for West Pharmaceutical Services, where he has handled new regulations impacting different sites around the world. Dunlap’s success is a shining example of the possibilities of an education at St. Mary's University, but also how alternatives to a …

Common Measures Of Vaccination Intention Generate Substantially Different Estimates That Can Reduce Predictive Validity, Jessica Fishman, K. Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum, Christopher Robertson, Dolores Albarracin

Faculty Scholarship

Surveys often estimate vaccination intentions using dichotomous ("Yes"/"No") or trichotomous ("Yes," "Unsure," "No") response options presented in different orders. Do survey results depend on these variations? This controlled experiment randomized participants to dichotomous or trichotomous measures of vaccine intentions (with “Yes” and “No” options presented in different orders). Intentions were measured separately for COVID-19, its booster, and influenza vaccines. Among a sample of U.S. adults (N = 4,764), estimates of vaccine intention varied as much as 37.5 ± 17.4 percentage points as a function of the dichotomous or trichotomous response set. Among participants who had not received the COVID-19 vaccine, …

The Initial Response Of Biodiversity Conventions To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Royal C. Gardner, Lauren Beames, Katherine Pratt

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the operations of global biodiversity conventions, requiring virtual meetings in place of in-person events. Yet the pandemic also highlighted the importance of biodiversity conservation as a mechanism to reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases, as the October 2020 report issued by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (“IPBES”) emphasized. Now that in-person, international meetings have resumed, this Article examines the extent to which four biodiversity conventions—the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the Convention on Biological Diversity—considered the nexus …