Supremes toss drug lawsuit limits!

I've sporadically followed the case of a musician who was awarded $6,700,000 from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals because of the manner in which Wyeth encouraged doctors to administer Phenergan, which led to her arm having to be amputated.

Wyeth argued that this award in a Vermont state court should be gutted, saying that federal rules preempt such verdicts in state courts. Wyeth claimed that once a drug is approved by the FDA, that's proof that it's safe, and they can't be sued over it.

Seriously. They said that.

Naturally, the gleezixdolfs in the Bush regime backed Wyeth's so-called defense. The Bush empire had a strange fetish for federal preemption of the states' powers.

Wyeth fought the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court - only to lose spectacularly.

The Supremes have now ruled 6 to 3 against the pharmaceutical giant. This is an unexpected but welcome blast against corporate power.

The 3 Justices who sided with Wyeth in its greedy quest are (drum roll, please) conservatives John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Samuel Alito. Thus, the 2 Bush-appointed Justices are among the 3 who sided against consumers. See what I mean about elections having consequences?

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/04/AR2009030401407.html)