This document discusses the legal foundations of public health. It examines the roles of public health law and policy in influencing health outcomes and protecting populations from health threats. Public health law is currently scattered across many statutes and documents, but efforts to codify it could make it more understandable and enforceable. Legal issues in public health arise when legislation, regulation, and policy are misaligned in a way that causes overreach or neglect of governmental powers. Public health laws also remain fragmented both within and among jurisdictions, leading to inconsistent standards and approaches to health threats. The document argues that public health laws and interventions would benefit from being more uniform and based primarily on the level of health risk rather than artificial disease distinctions.