Jul 26, 2004
Another Assault on Our Rights
In my last communication I warned that the Bush administration and their conservative allies were desperately trying to deny ordinary citizens their rights to seek redress in court against America’s corporate interests. Now, just a few days later, the administration has provided additional evidence of how it jeopardizes our Seventh Amendment rights.
In an abandonment of past precedent by the federal executive, the Bush administration has been petitioning courts to reject lawsuits by citizens who allege injury from prescription drugs and medical devices. The administration claims that companies should have a blanket exemption from injuries caused by drugs and devices that were approved by the FDA, claiming that such lawsuits would result in the withdrawal of useful products from the market.
This represents a wholesale retreat from the position the federal executive took before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 when it argued that approval by the FDA represents a minimum standard for a medical device. Now that floor has suddenly become a ceiling for the Bush administration, shielding manufacturers and drug companies from liability and depriving consumers of their rights of redress. The architect of the administration’s strategy, FDA general counsel Daniel Troy --surprise, surprise -- represented drug giant Pfizer while in private practice. The practical result is to slam the court house door shut on ordinary citizens injured by medical products.
Although few Americans are aware of their Seventh Amendment rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has broadly interpreted this basic component of our Bill of Rights. The Court established, for example, the right of “trial by jury in actions unheard of at common law, provided that the action involves rights and remedies of the sort traditionally enforced in an action at law, rather than in an action at equity or admiralty.” The Court has also applied the Amendment to causes of action created by statute: “The Seventh Amendment does apply to actions enforcing statutory rights, and requires a jury trial upon demand, if the statute creates legal rights and remedies, enforceable in an action for damages in the ordinary courts of law.”
In an abandonment of past precedent by the federal executive, the Bush administration has been petitioning courts to reject lawsuits by citizens who allege injury from prescription drugs and medical devices. The administration claims that companies should have a blanket exemption from injuries caused by drugs and devices that were approved by the FDA, claiming that such lawsuits would result in the withdrawal of useful products from the market.
This represents a wholesale retreat from the position the federal executive took before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 when it argued that approval by the FDA represents a minimum standard for a medical device. Now that floor has suddenly become a ceiling for the Bush administration, shielding manufacturers and drug companies from liability and depriving consumers of their rights of redress. The architect of the administration’s strategy, FDA general counsel Daniel Troy --surprise, surprise -- represented drug giant Pfizer while in private practice. The practical result is to slam the court house door shut on ordinary citizens injured by medical products.
Although few Americans are aware of their Seventh Amendment rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has broadly interpreted this basic component of our Bill of Rights. The Court established, for example, the right of “trial by jury in actions unheard of at common law, provided that the action involves rights and remedies of the sort traditionally enforced in an action at law, rather than in an action at equity or admiralty.” The Court has also applied the Amendment to causes of action created by statute: “The Seventh Amendment does apply to actions enforcing statutory rights, and requires a jury trial upon demand, if the statute creates legal rights and remedies, enforceable in an action for damages in the ordinary courts of law.”