Transgender individuals’ access to gender-affirming care is increasingly under attack. In response, various states are protecting access to gender-affirming healthcare through shield laws. While shield laws vary by state, the laws have two primary goals: (1) to protect transgender individuals, their families, and their medical providers against such attacks and […]

On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the presence of a rare form of pneumonia in five previously healthy gay men in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report — it wouldn’t be until 1986 that the Reagan administration mentioned “AIDS” in public. Around this time, about 16,500 people […]

In 2014, one American town prioritized cost-saving measures over the health of its people. The city of Flint, MI imprudently decided to trade its current drinking water system, which piped treated water from the nearby city of Detroit, to a new, familiar source: the Flint River. Inadequate treatment of this […]

 For years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has considered revising how it defines the term “healthy.” This April, the FDA is due to publish its updated definition of the term, which would change which foods manufacturers could legally claim are healthy. The definition has not been updated since 1994. […]

In a landmark 1984 case before the Supreme Court, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. set forth a doctrine of judicial deference for administrative actions. The doctrine determined that a court should defer to an agency’s decision regarding an ambiguous statute whenever the agency’s action was reasonable, […]