Poster #70 - Judicial Health Notes - A New Tool to Analyze Health Effects of Court Decisions

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Every day, U.S. courts make decisions that influence policy and have lasting impacts on public health. Arguments in cases related to gun control, environmental conservation, or civil rights, for example, often overlook the potential health implications of the legal questions they are grappling with. In 2024, the Health in All Policies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with support from the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, developed and launched a new tool called Judicial Health Notes to help the government agencies and communities affected by these rulings identify their potential unintended consequences for health, and opportunities to maximize benefits while mitigating harms. Health Notes can be implemented during an ongoing case or after a ruling has been issued.

In this session, Dr. Keshia Pollack Porter and Stefanie Carignan, the developers of the Judicial Health Note, will explain the origins of the Judicial Health Note and provide a detailed explanation of the research methodology. Participants will learn about example analyses related to environmental health and homelessness, and prospective health note practitioners will hear about opportunities to participate in training and technical assistance.

Judicial health notes are designed to bring health to the forefront of a broad range of decisions by drawing attention to the unintended consequences of court cases. This adaptable methodology is easy for non-experts to implement and can promote collaboration between practitioners of law and public health.  

Author

• Stefanie Carignan, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author