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Ideally, public health laws would be developed on a robust base of scientific, epidemiologic, and medical data and enacted independent of the various political forces at play. In reality, of course, this “gold standard” is often unattainable. The success of public health legislation in the United States depends on a combination of empirical data, anecdotal evidence, political will, political palatability, media involvement, and the myriad number of issues simultaneously vying for policymakers’ attention. 1 For example, in the months and years following September 11, 2001, legislative attention focused suddenly and squarely on homeland security; chronic disease prevention and other kinds of public health measures understandably took a back seat. 2 A cursory scan of state public health and environmental laws reveals that lawmaking often requires compromise with political factors at play. 3 This may explain why …