By Scott Burris, JD The National Football League has given the National Institutes of Health $30 million for research on traumatic brain injury. There is much we don’t know about the causes, effects, prevention and treatment of sports-related brain injury – but that doesn’t mean that we should put all our eggs into the basket…
By Scott Burris In a Perspective in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Michelle Mello and Glenn Cohen, both professors at Harvard, write about the prospects for using the constitutional Taxing Power to adopt innovative laws to advance public health objectives. Cueing off the Supreme Court’s decision in the Affordable Care Act litigation, Mello…
By Rebecca Haffajee Sure enough, last Friday the American Beverage Association and others, represented by Latham & Watkins, sued to block Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages larger than 16 oz at certain NYC vendors. The suit, filed in the NY Supreme Court, asserts that the Mayor bypassed the proper legislative process…
By Patrick O’Leary A friend and I were having a conversation about health policy the other day when he observed that drug regulators like FDA face an impossible task in terms of public expectations: as consumers, we expect the drugs we take to be 100% safe, 100% of the time. Of course, no regulator, no…
Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health Thursday, November 1, 2012, 1-5:30pm Friday, November 2, 2012, 12-1:30pm Northeastern University School of Law Dockster Hall 65 Forsyth Street, Boston The Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) and the Program on Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law are hosting an…
This is Part 3 in a three-part series on gun laws, mental illness and violence in the United States. Read Part 1 and Part 2. By Jeffrey Swanson, PhD So what can the law do about gun violence? The US Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and McDonald…
By Efthimios Parasidis One week prior to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the health care cases, Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly voted in favor of health-related legislation (387-5 House; 96-1 Senate). Industry and HHS were quick to congratulate our elected officials on a triumphant bipartisan achievement, while the FDA enthusiastically welcomed its latest collaboration with Big…
By Rebecca Haffajee As many are aware, the New York City Board of Health recently approved Major Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) over 16 ounces in size sold at city restaurants, delis, sports venues, movie theaters, and street carts. This “soda ban” is set to go into effect on March 12, 2013.…
By Scott Burris A law professor is usually thrilled to have an article cited by the Supreme Court. An empirical researcher will, likewise, be pleased that evidence he or she helped create shapes a decision of the highest court of the land. But maybe not always. Today I learned that the Supreme Court cited a…
By Nicole Huberfeld We Who Follow ACA Litigation will continue to be in business. [On September 19], Oklahoma’s Attorney General sought leave to amend the state’s original complaint regarding the individual mandate. Now the state claims that the tax subsidies offered to those qualifying for financial assistance to obtain insurance through the exchanges are impermissible. …
