• Dawn Pepin and Samantha Bent Weber.
• Dawn Pepin, J.D., M.P.H., is a Cherokee Nation Assurance contractor for the Public Health Law Program, Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, CDC. Samantha Bent Weber, J.D., is a Doctoral Candidate in the Joint Program in Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy and the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.
• J Law Med Ethics. 2019 Jun 1; 47 (2_suppl): 76-79.

AbstractOne fundamental barrier to eliminating health disparities, particularly with regard to the determinants of health, is the persistence of discrimination. Civil rights law is the primary legal mechanism used to address discrimination. Federal civil rights laws have been the subject of wider analyses as a determinant of health as well as a tool to address health disparities. The research on state civil rights laws, while more limited, is growing. This article will highlight a few examples of how some states are using civil rights laws to combat discrimination, particularly in more expansive ways and in the interest of new populations, presenting tools that can target determinants and address the goal of reducing health disparities.

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