Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-p69rv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-09-08T07:13:22.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Preemption as a Tool of Structural Racism: Implications for Racial Health Inequities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2022

Courtnee Melton-Fant
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Preemption is a substantial threat to achieving racial equity. Since 2011, states have increasingly preempted local governments from enacting policies that can improve health and reduce racial inequities such as increasing minimum wage and requiring paid leave.

Keywords

RacismPreemptionHealth DisparitiesState GovernmentLocal Government

Information

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 50 , Issue 1: Health Law and Anti-Racism: Reckoning and Response , Spring 2022 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Carr, D., Adler, S., Winig, B., and Montez, J.K., “Equity First: Conceptualizing a Normative Framework to Assess the Role of Preemption in Public Health,” Milbank Quarterly 98, no. 1 (2020): 131–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briffault, R., “The Challenge of New Preemption,” Stanford Law Review 70, no. 6 (2018): 1995–2028 Google Scholar
Krieger, N., “Refiguring ‘Race’: Epidemiology, Racialized Biology, and Biological Expressions of Race Relations,” International Journal of Health Services 30, no. 1 (2000): 211–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bailey, Z.D., Krieger, N., and Agénor, M.D., Graves, J., Linos, N., and Bassett, M.T., “Structural Racism and Health Inequities in the USA: Evidence and Interventions,” The Lancet 389 (2017): 1453–1463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Agénor, M., Perkins, C., Stamoulis, C., Hall, R.D., Samnaliev, M., Berland, S., and Austin, S.B., “Developing a Database of Structural Racism-Related State Laws for Health Equity Research and Practice in the United States,” Public Health Reports 136, no. 4 (2021): 428–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieger, N., Chen, J.T., Coull, B.A., Beckfield, J., Kiang, M.V., and Waterman, P.D., “Jim Crow and Premature Mortality among the US Black and White Population, 1960-2009: An Age-Period Cohort Analysis,” Epidemiology 25, no. 4 (2014): 494–504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieger, N., Chen, J.T., Coull, B., Waterman, P.D., and Beckfield, J., “The Unique Impact of Abolition of Jim Crow Laws on Reducing Inequities in Infant Death Rates and Implications for Choice Comparison Groups in Analyzing Societal Determinants of Health,” American Journal of Public Health 103 (2013): 2234–2244.Google ScholarPubMed
Lukachko, A., Hatzenbuehler, M.L., and Keyes, K.M., “Structural Racism and Myocardial Infarction in the United States,” Social Science & Medicine 103 (2015): 42–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krieger, N., Jahn, J.L., and Waterman, P.D., “Jim Crow and Estrogen-Receptor-Negative Breast Cancer: US-Born Black and White Non-Latinx Women, 1992-2012,” Cancer Causes Control 28, no. 1 (2017): 49–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, V.L. and Poppe, S.V., “Systemic Racism and Resulting Inequity in Latino Communities,” UnidosUS, 2021.Google Scholar
Yearby, R., “Structural Racism and Health Disparities: Reconfiguring the Social Determinants of Health Framework to the Root Cause,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 48 (2020): 518–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, E., Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, 5th ed. (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018): at 3.Google Scholar
National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity, “Preemption: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters for Public Health,” 2009.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine, For the Public’s Health: Investing in a Healthier Future (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2012): at 276.Google Scholar
Goodman, C.B., Hatch, M.E., and McDonald, B.D., “State Preemption of Local Laws: Origins and Modern Trends,” Perspectives on Public Management and Governance 4, no. 2 (2021): 146–158.10.1093/ppmgov/gvaa018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, supra note 12, at 23.Google Scholar
Haddow, K., “Under the Cover of Covid: A Survey of 2020-2021 State Preemption Trends,” Local Solutions Support Center, 2021, available at <https://www.supportdemocracy.org/the-latest/under-the-cover-of-covid> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Pomeranz, J.L. and Pertschuk, M., “State Preemption: A Significant and Quiet Threat to Public Health in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 6 (2017): 900–902.10.2105/AJPH.2017.303756CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodge, J.G. Jr., Chronister, D., Hess, A., Morcelle, M., and Wetter, S.A., “Public Health Preemption+: Constitutional Affronts to Public Health Innovations,” Ohio State Law Journal 79, no. 4 (2018): 686–703.Google Scholar
Blair, H., Cooper, D., Wolfe, J., and Worker, J., “Preempting Progress: State Interference in Local Policymaking Prevents People of Color, Women, and Low-Income Workers from Making Ends Meet in the South,” Economic Policy Institute, 2020, available at <https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-south/> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC Strategic Plan 2016-2018 (2016), available at <https://www.alec.org/app/uploads/2016/06/ALEC-Strat-Plan-Final-051616.pdf> (last visited September 14, 2021).+(last+visited+September+14,+2021).>Google Scholar
Briffault, supra note 2.Google Scholar
American Legislative Exchange Council, Preemption Laws Provides Backstop for Localized Progressive Politics , available at <https://www.alec.org/article/preemption-laws-provide-backstop-for-localized-progressive-politics/> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Hertel-Fernandez, A., State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States--and the Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019): at ix-x, 240.Google Scholar
Khoo, J., “Code Words in Political Discourse,” Philosophical Topics 45, no. 2 (2017): 33–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair et al., supra note 21.Google Scholar
Pomeranz, J.L. and Silver, D., “State Legislative Strategies to Pass, Enhance, and Obscure Preemption of Local Public Health Policy-Making,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 59, no. 3 (2020): 333–342.Google ScholarPubMed
Senate Bill 331,131st General Assembly, Ohio (2017).Google Scholar
DiPippa, J.M.A., “Bias in Disguise: The Constitutional Problems of Arkansas’s Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act,” University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review 37, no. 3 (2015): 469–494.Google Scholar
Hodge, J.G. Jr., Corbett, A., Weidenaar, K., and Wetter, S.A., “Public Health ‘Preemption Plus,’” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 45 (2017): 156–160.Google ScholarPubMed
Scharff, E.A., “Hyper Preemption: A Reordering of the State-Local Relationship?” Georgetown Law Journal 106 (2017): 1469.Google Scholar
McConahay, J.B. and Hough, J.C., “Symbolic Racism,” Journal of Social Issues 32 (1976): 23–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, E., “The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, ‘Post-Racial’ America,” American Behavioral Scientist 59, no. 11 (2015): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConahay and Hough, supra note 33.Google Scholar
Bobo, L. and Smith, R.A., “Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a ‘Kinder, Gentler’ Anti-black Ideology,” in Tuch, S.A. and Martin, J.K., eds., Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997): at 15–44.Google Scholar
Gotanda, N., “A Critique of ‘Our Constitution Is Color-Blind,’” Stanford Law Review 44, no. 1 (1991): 1-68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Siegel, R.B., “Discrimination in the Eyes of the Law: How ‘Color Blindess’ Discourse Disrupts and Rationalizes Social Stratification,” California Law Review 88 (2000): 77–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noah, B.A., “Racial Disparities in the Delivery of Health Care,” San Diego Law Review 35, no. 1 (1998): 135–178.Google ScholarPubMed
Melton-Fant, C., “Relationship between State Preemption of Inclusionary Zoning Policies and Health Outcomes: Is There Disparate Impact among People of Color?” Housing Policy Debate 30, no. 6 (2020): 1056–1065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, M.R., “Individualism, Self-Interest, and White Racism,” Social Science Quarterly 77, no. 4 (1996): 760–767.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, T., “The Failure of Race Neutral Policies: How Mandatory Terms and Sentencing Enhancements Contribute to Mass Racialized Incarceration,” Crime & Delinquency 57, no. 1 (2011): 56–81.Google Scholar
Haddow, supra note 18.Google Scholar
Davidson, N.M. and Haddow, K., “State Preemption and Local Responses in the Pandemic. Expert Forum: Law and Policy Analysis,” 2020, available at <https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/state-preemption-and-local-responses-in-the-pandemic/> (last visited December 10, 2021).Google Scholar
Benfer, E.A., Mohapatra, S., Wiley, L.F., and Yearby, R., “Health Justice Strategies to Combat Pandemic: Eliminating Discrimination, Poverty, and Health Disparities During and After COVID-19,” Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 19, no. 3 (2020): 125–171.Google Scholar
Carr, D. and Adler, S., “Addressing Preemption to Empower Local Governments,” ChangeLab Solutions, 2020, available at <https://www.changelabsolutions.org/blog/addressing-preemption-empower-local-governments> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Yearby, R. and Mohapatra, S., “Systemic Racism, the Government’s Pandemic Response, and Racial Inequities,” Emory Law Journal (forthcoming, 2021).Google Scholar
Quillian, L., Pager, D., Hexel, O., and Midtbøen, A.H., “Meta-analysis of Field Experiments Shows No Change in Racial Discrimination in Hiring over Time,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114, no. 41 (2017): 10870–10875.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shore, T., Tashchian, A., and Forrester, W.R., “The Influence of Resume Quality and Ethnicity Cues on Employment Decisions,” Journal of Business Economics and Management 22, no. 1 (2021): 61–76.Google Scholar
McGinn, K.L. and Milkman, K.L., “Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity among Professionals,” Organization Science 24, no. 4 (2013): 1041–1060.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2020, available at <https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2020/employee-benefits-in-the-united-states-march-2020.pdf> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Ross, M. and Bateman, N., Meet the Low-Wage Workforce: Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, 2019, available at <https://www.brookings.edu/research/meet-the-low-wage-workforce/> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Jones, T., “A Different Class of Care: The Benefit Crisis and Low-Wage Workers,” American University Law Review 66, no. 3 (2017): 691–760.Google ScholarPubMed
Berdhal, T.A., “Prevalence of Paid Sick Leave among Wage Earners, 2017, in Research Findings #47,” Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2021.Google Scholar
Hain, P., Yadavalli, A., and Wagner, S., “Local Governments Lead the Charge on Providing Emergency Paid Sick Leave to Employees,” National League of Cities, 2020, available at <https://www.nlc.org/article/2020/04/01/local-governments-lead-the-charge-on-providing-emergency-leave-to-employees/> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Supplemental Data Measuring the Effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Sick Leave Plans, in National Compensation Survey,” 2020, available at <https://www.bls.gov/ncs/effects-of-coronavirus-on-sick-leave-policies.htm> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Williams, J.B., “COVID-19 Widens Disparities for Workers of Color,” ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law 35, no. 1 (2020): 33–39.Google Scholar
Berdhal, supra note 55.Google Scholar
Haddow, supra note 18.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, A., “States Pre-empt Cities Almost to the Point of Irrelevance, Governing,” 2021, available at <https://www.governing.com/now/States-Preempt-Cities-Almost-to-the-Point-of-Irrelevance.html> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Ronzio, C.R., Pamuk, E., and Squires, G.D., “The Politics of Preventable Deaths: Local Spending, Income Inequality, and Premature Mortality in US Cities,” Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 58, no. 3 (2004): 175–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, C., “Graham, Police Violence, and Health through a Public Health Lens,” Boston University Law Review 100 (2020): 1093–1109.Google Scholar
Obasogie, O.K. and Newman, Z., “Police Violence, Use of Force Policies, and Public Health,” American Journal of Law & Medicine 43 (2017): 279–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieger, N., Kiang, M.V., Chen, J.T., and Waterman, P.D., “Trends in US deaths Due to Legal Intervention among Black and White Men, Age 15-34 Years, by County Income Level: 1960-2010,” Harvard Public Health Review 3 (2015): 1–5.Google Scholar
Gabrielson, R., Sagara, E., and Jones, R.G., “Deadly Force, in Black and White: A ProPublica Analysis of Killings by Police Shows Outsize Risk for Young Black Males,” 2014, available at <https://www.propublica.org/article/deadly-force-in-black-and-white> (last visited December 10, 2021).+(last+visited+December+10,+2021).>Google Scholar
Bor, J., Venkataramani, A.S., Williams, D.R., and Tsai, A.C., “Police Killings and Their Spillover Effects on the Mental Health of Black Americans: A Population-Based, Quasi-experimental Study,” The Lancet 392, no. 10144 (2018): 302–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McFarland, M.J., Taylor, J., McFarland, C.A., and Friedman, K.L., “Perceived Unfair Treatment by Police, Race, and Telomere Length: A Nashville Community-based Sample of Black and White Men,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 59, no. 4 (2018): 585–600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, K.L. and Ray, R., “Why Police Kill Black Males with Impunity: Applying Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to Address the Determinants of Policing Behaviors and ‘Justifiable’ Homicides in the USA,” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 93 (2015): S122–S140.Google Scholar
Crosbie, E. and Schmidt, L.A., “Preemption in Tobacco Control: A Framework for Other Areas of Public Health,” American Journal of Public Health 110, no. 3 (2020): 345–350.Google ScholarPubMed
Hodge, Jr. et al., supra note 20.Google Scholar