Emergency Legal Preparedness and Response
During disease outbreaks or natural disasters, jurisdictions may take divergent legal approaches in their responses to national or regional public health threats. Legal authorities vary across states, tribal governments and localities during declared emergencies. Conflicting laws and overlapping jurisdictions further complicate key decisions on when or how to respond.
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Resources
Federal Actions and Their Impact on Harm Reduction, Public Health Emergencies, and Climate Change: A Preview of the 2025 Public Health Law Conference
Hogan v. Lincoln Medical Partners
OSHA Proposed Rule Protecting Workers from Extreme Heat
What Does Judicial Deference Have to Do with Public Health Authority?
Trends in Vaccination Law and Judicial Challenges
Guidance: State COVID-19 Emergency Declarations
Legal and Health Care Repercussions of the End of the National Public Health Emergency
Legal Repercussions of Public Health Emergency Rescissions
COVID-19 Related Opinions and Orders from the U.S. Supreme Court
CDC Travel Mask Mandate Litigation
Emergency Legal Preparedness: Monkeypox
Legal Handbook for Establishing A Public Health Registry
Spotlight
Updates to HHS Restructuring and Funding Cuts: Impact on State and Local Public Health
Opportunity to Promote Public Health for Workers Exposed to Extreme Heat
Public Health Law Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Human Health Impacts of Climate Change
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A Closer Look at Emergency Legal Preparedness and Response
Public health officials may face many critical legal and policy decisions during public health emergencies, including:
- Inter-jurisdictional legal coordination of federal, tribal, state and local actors in real-time emergencies under changing legal norms
- The ability to issue isolation or quarantine orders, or other social distancing methods, to control public health threats
- Whether to close or dismiss schools, or other public assemblies, temporarily or for prolonged periods to prevent the spread of communicable diseases
- The authority to mandate vaccinations for minors or autonomous adults, including health care workers
- Licensing, credentialing and privileging out-of-state health practitioners
- Inter-jurisdictional management of scarce resources including personnel, vaccines, shelter and sustenance
- Omnipresent concerns over liability of public health practitioners during emergencies
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