Constitutional Law

High Court Adds Cases to Term; Set To Hear Arguments In Eight, This Week

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning in a high-profile case involving preemption, a doctrine that can bar injured consumers from suing in state court. In Wyeth v. Levine, the justices will consider a $6 million verdict that a Vermont jury awarded Diana Levine against a pharmaceutical company for failing to warn her adequately about the risks of one of its drugs. The drug company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, claims that the award should be overturned because state law bars people from suing for harm caused by a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Wyeth case and other cases involving the legal doctrine of preemption were analyzed during a recent ACS Supreme Court preview. Video of the preview is here. The high court is set to hear oral arguments in seven other cases this week.

The high court today also added two more cases to its term, District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne and Atlantic Sounding Co., v. Townsend. Osborne involves a prison inmate’s ability to use DNA evidence and Townsend involves a shipboard worker’s lawsuit seeking punitive damages.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).