Supreme Court rejects limits on drug lawsuits

danarhea · Mar 4, 2009

The Supreme Court has rejected limiting consumers lawsuits against drug manufacturers.

The surprise in the case is Clarence Thomas, who sided with John Paul Stevens, who wrote the majority opinion. Quite a surprise there. Nevertheless, I still disagree with the decision. The labeling on the drug in question plainly showed a warning. If anyone should have been sued, it should have been the doctor for improperly administering the drug.

Article is here.

Kernel Sanders · Mar 4, 2009

danarhea said:
Nevertheless, I still disagree with the decision. The labeling on the drug in question plainly showed a warning. If anyone should have been sued, it should have been the doctor for improperly administering the drug.

It seems that you disagree with the law because the ruling as I understand it was reasonable. The courts stated that there is no law that provides pre-emption of such consumer lawsuits, as there are in other areas. Had the courts ruled otherwise they would be writing new laws

The central issue in this case was the absence of language in the federal law setting out regulation of prescription drugs that forecloses consumer complaints in state courts. Congress has included such language in other areas.

"Unless Congress has spoken directly to the question, the court this term has said it is not going to favor broader arguments for pre-emption," said David Frederick, who represented Levine and the cigarette smokers who won an earlier ruling this term allowing their lawsuits against tobacco companies to proceed.

Supreme Court rejects limits on drug lawsuits

danarhea

Slayer of the DP Newsbot

Kernel Sanders

Norville Rogers