Lauren Gardner
Lauren Gardner is a POLITICO reporter covering the FDA and pharmaceutical policy, including medical product approvals, vaccines, public health, and federal oversight of medicines and treatments.
Supreme Court Health Cases Test Agency Power, State Law, and Citizenship
At an Aspen Ideas: Health panel, Supreme Court advocates Kannon Shanmugam and Jeffrey Fisher, with moderator Margot Sanger-Katz, argued that some of the term’s most consequential health effects are emerging from cases not formally about health care. Disputes over mifepristone, Roundup labels, conversion therapy, birthright citizenship and gun restrictions show the court reallocating power among presidents, agencies, states, juries, doctors and Congress. Their through-line was institutional: when elected branches leave major health questions unresolved, courts increasingly decide who has authority to set the rules.
Healthcare Cases Test Who Controls Agencies, States, Juries, and Courts
At Aspen Ideas: Health, Supreme Court litigators Kannon Shanmugam and Jeffrey Fisher argued that major healthcare disputes before the courts are also fights over institutional authority. In cases involving mifepristone, Roundup, conversion therapy, marijuana and firearms, birthright citizenship, disability services, and vaccine mandates, they framed the central question as who gets the final say when health policy reaches judges: agencies, states, juries, Congress, the president, or the Court itself.