Constitutional Contagion

'Constitutional Contagion is undoubtedly the single most important book on the outsized influence of the judiciary in the COVID-19 pandemic. Wendy Parmet has no equal in American public health law. Her book contains a nuanced explanation of how an increasingly aggressive conservative judiciary has curbed important public health powers during the pandemic. Prof Parmet has always fought for a careful balance between strong public health powers and sensitivity to privacy and liberty of citizens. We need to learn the lessons she is teaching, not just for COVID-19 but also for the next health crisis, which might occur sooner then we think. This book is a tour de force-essential reading for scholars and citizens who care about good public health governance.' Lawrence Gostin, Georgetown University 'Parmet's incisive analysis will be an invaluable resource to experts and nonexperts alike as we all work together to reconstruct a viable balance between individual liberty and collective action to protect the public's health.' Lindsay F. Wiley, University of California, Los Angeles 'This book confirms Wendy Parmet's status as our leading interpreter of the judicial doctrines of public health - and our most powerful legal voice for recognizing the promotion and protection of public health as a defining purpose of government. Parmet clearly recounts the history and explains the importance of landmark cases, in a way that a reader does not need a law degree to understand or profit by.' Scott Burris, Temple University 'Constitutional Contagion is a compelling tour de force, and essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America's fraught response to the COVID pandemic. No other scholar understands the legal and political conflicts better than Wendy Parmet. With clear, insightful explanation, Parmet shows us that thoughtful law and reasoned governance are possible even in the midst of a deadly pandemic. But to face a pandemic future, we must implement reforms now, rather than give in to the complacency that has so often followed serious outbreaks of contagious disease throughout our history.' Polly Price, Emory University School of Law 'Provocative and illuminating.' Linda Greenhouse, New York Review of Books 'Important and disquieting.' Mark Rothstein, American Journal of Public Health 'Parmet's book serves overwhelming evidence of how we have contorted our constitutive laws to thwart the common good. Can it truly be that we would forsake the good rather than hold it in common? But her message is fundamentally a hopeful one insofar as she is pointing out the contingency of our current constitutional condition, the shallowness of the recent health-hostile stance of the courts, and the more deeply-rooted, pro-public health orientation that we could recuperate.' Christina S. Ho, Jotwell 'An impressively detailed analysis of the development of public health law in the United States.' Daniel Sledge, Perspectives on Politics