This essay reflects upon the last thirty-five years of public health law. Part One begins by discussing the growth and maturation of the field of public health law since the 1980s. Part Two examines current challenges facing public health law, focusing on those posed by the conservative legal movement and a judiciary that is increasingly skeptical of efforts to use law to improve health and mitigate health inequities. Part Three discusses potential responses to the increasingly perilous judicial climate, including thoughts that emerged from a convening held on the subject by the Act for Public Health Partnership in May 2024.

Firstly, I would like to thank George Annas, Wendy Mariner, and Fran Miller for nurturing the field of health law, and keeping the collaboration vibrant for more than half a century.

Today, considerations of disability are a vital part of health law scholarship and teaching, but that was not always the case. This Essay traces how disability’s role in health law has grown over the past three decades, alongside the author’s own evolution as a health and disability law scholar. The recent official designation of disabled people as a health disparities population is encouraging, but much work remains to achieve health equity for disabled persons.