Written By Avani Rai, and originally published in The Harvard Undergraduate Law Review‘s Spring 2024 Edition. Emily M. Broad Leib is a Clinical Professor of Law, Director of Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, the nation’s first law school clinic dedicated to addressing the diverse array of issues within the U.S.’ food system. Through a hands-on approach focused on policy-driven solutions, she has championed community-led food system change, reduction in food waste, food access, and equ ..read more

The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) has released updated FAQs intended to help health care advocates, providers, and individuals understand key issues at stake in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, a case in which the plaintiffs seek to undermine a critical portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This part of the ACA is intended to guarantee the accessibility and affordability of certain preventive services. Since this is active litigation and legal analysis is ongoing, these FAQs will be updated periodically to reflect new developments (last updated July 12, 2024 ..read more

The last days of the Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) term brought some blockbuster decisions with far reaching implications for federal agencies charged with regulating health care. In an expected but still monumental move, SCOTUS issued a decision in Loper Bright vs. Raimondo overruling decades of precedent under which courts gave deference to agency interpretation of federal statutes the agency was charged with enforcing. The case is already reverberating in the health policy sphere, where federal regulations often bring clarity and force to vague statutory provisions and where ..read more

As the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) wrapped up its term, decisions came fast and furiously last week. On June 27, SCOTUS issued its decision on two consolidated cases, Moyle vs. United States and Idaho vs. United States (referred to as “Moyle” throughout), that address access to abortions in emergency circumstances. At the heart of these cases is the question about whether and how federal law protecting access to emergency health care preempts state abortion bans in certain circumstances. In a 6-3 decision, SCOTUS decided to dismiss the cases, meaning that the lower court’s orde ..read more

By Denae Romero, FLPC Intern, Summer 2024 On June 12 at the ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit in Baltimore, MD, the USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack announced the finished version of the “National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics” (the Strategy). Many of the stakeholders at the conference were participants in providing comments on the December 2023 draft version of the Strategy and had been eagerly awaiting the finalized version. One such group was the Zero Food Waste Coalition (ZFWC), a group of like-minded food system stakeholders seeking to build alignment and mom ..read more

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its much-anticipated decision in Braidwood v. Becerra, a case challenging the constitutionality of the ACA preventive care mandate. The mandate, discussed in more detail in a recent Health Care in Motion, guarantees most people with private insurance access to coverage without copayments or cost-sharing of four sets of preventive services: wide-ranging preventive care services for everyone rated “A” or “B” by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF); vaccines recommended by the federal Advisory Committee for Imm ..read more

The Supreme Court of the United States’ term is wrapping up this month, and, as is custom, they are announcing the decisions in their most controversial cases at the end. The much-anticipated decision on access to mifepristone – a drug that in combination with another medication, misoprostol, has long been prescribed to end a pregnancy – was no exception, with the Supreme Court issuing its decision in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vs. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on June 13, 2024. In a unanimous ruling, the Court rejected a challenge from plaintiffs who had argued the FDA had imprope ..read more

Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative publish a report identifying policy opportunities to meaningfully incorporate nutrition education into physician education and training programs. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Boston, MA (June 13, 2024) – The leading cause of death in the United States is poor diet, yet most doctors are not equipped with the education and training necessary to provide nutrition advice to their patients.  Most medical students receive fewer than 20 hours of nutrition education and doctors in most residency and fellowship programs ..read more

Summer interns in the Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) engage in action-based learning to gain a deeper understanding of the complex challenges facing our current food system. The summer internship provides hands-on experience conducting legal and policy research for individuals, community groups, and government agencies on a wide range of food law and policy issues. Interns are also challenged to develop creative legal and policy solutions to pressing food issues, applying their knowledge from the classroom to real-world situations. This summer FLPC welcomes Denae Romero, Nick Blumenthal, an ..read more

The Food Law and Policy Clinic this Spring welcomed Dr. Pinghui Xiao, Senior Lecturer, Law School, Guangzhou University, China, as a visiting scholar. Prior to his current assignments, Xiao worked in the former China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). He is Principal Investigator for two national research grants, which enable him to continue work on his publication series titled “Edible Internet” and “Digital Health”. Dr. Pinghui Xiao, Visiting Scholar, Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School. In 2023, he was employed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nati ..read more