As part of its ongoing and to date very successful effort to insulate corporate wrongdoing from accountability, responsibility and liability, the Bush Administration has adopted since 2005 a total of 51 regulatory rules that preclude lawsuits arising from all sorts of everyday items including drugs, cars, railroads, medical devices and food.
The legal doctrine is known as "federal preemption." Here's how it works: say for instance the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adopts a regulation outlining drug labeling and packaging. However, the labeling and packaging causes confusion and, as a result, children are badly injured. That's what happened to actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins who were given massive doses of blood thinner at a hospital. The Quaids filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court claiming that the manufacturer -- Baxter Healthcare Corp. -- was negligent n packaging different doses of the product in similar vials with blue backgrounds. Under the doctrine of "federal preemption," however, the Quaids' suit could be barred because the manufacturer's compliance with a deficient federal regulation preempts any liability it might have for causing harm.
Earlier this year FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach publicly acknowledged that the agency "may fail in its mission to protect and promote the health of every American" and that "peril exists." That admission followed on the heels of a report late in 2007 from the FDA Science Board that the agency does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of the nation's food, cannot adequately regulate the development of medical products based on "new science" and had many other materials failings.
Historically, state tort and liability lawsuits have been viewed as complementary to federal agency regulations. But the Bush Administration has hit upon a successful formula to ensure not consumer safety but corporate immunity from responsibility and accountability: render the regulatory agencies unable to function and preempt any attempt to protect consumers. The American Association for Justice and other groups are opposing mightily these efforts and you can learn more here.
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