The Flint water crisis demonstrates the importance of adequate legal preparedness in dealing with complicated legal arrangements and multiple statutory responsibilities. It also demonstrates the need for alternative accountability measures when public officials fail to protect the public's health and explores mechanisms for restoring community trust in governmental public health.
P. D.Jacobson, C. H.Boufides, J.Bernstein, D.Chrysler, and T.Citrin, Learning from the Flint Water Crisis: Protecting the Public's Health During a Financial Emergency (January2018), available at <http://www.debeaumont.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/FlintReport.pdf> (last visited March 20, 2019).
G. C.Benjamin and A. D.Moulton, “Public Health Legal Preparedness: A Framework for Action,”Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics36, no. S1 (2008): 13-17, at 14.
6.
Jacobson et al., supra note 2, at 47-48, 60.
7.
See Flint Water Advisory Task Force — Final Report, supra note 1, at 25, 31-33, 36-37, 47-51.
8.
P. D.Jacobson, J.Wasserman, A.Botoseneanu, A.Silverstein, and H. W.Wu, “The Role of Law in Public Health Preparedness: Opportunities and Challenges,”Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law37, no. 2 (2012): 297-328, at 322.
9.
National Research Council (US) Committee on Risk Perception and Communication, Improving Risk Communication (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1989): at 108-142.
10.
Jacobson et al., supra note 2, at 33.
11.
Guertin et al. v. State of Michigan et al., No. 5:16-cv-12412 (6th Cir., Jan. 4, 2019).
12.
L.Gable, and J. W.Buehler, “Criticized, Fired, Sued, or Prosecuted: Hindsight and Public Health Accountability,”Public Health Reports132, no. 6 (2017): 676-678.
M. S.Umbrett, B.Vos, R. B.Coates, and E.Lightfoot, “Restorative Justice in the Twenty-First Century: A Social Movement Full of Opportunities and Pitfalls,”Marquette Law Review89 (2005): 251-304, at 258; T. R. Clear and D. R. Karp, The Community Justice Ideal: Preventing Crime and Achieving Justice (New York: Routledge, 1999): at 24-32.
15.
J. E.Platt, P. D.Jacobson, and S. L. R.Kardia, “Public Trust in Health Information Sharing: A Measure of System Trust,”Health Services Research53, no. 2 (2018): 824-845, at 827.
