Civil Justice Law Blog

In Washington, D.C. yesterday morning, Congressman Peter King (R-Long Island) led a hearing on what he described as the political radicalization of Muslim Americans. In Oklahoma, state lawmakers recently voted to ban the use of Islamic sharia law in state courts, a juridical issue that it’s safe to say has never arisen in the state. Legislators in Tennessee would like to do the same. But has sharia law come up in other domestic legal contexts?

Jeremy Scahill reported Wednesday that a former inspector general for the Department of Defense, working as general counsel for a military contractor, advanced the idea in...

The preemption walls are tumbling down in automobile defective design cases. After ruling last week that federal seatbelt regulations did not preempt a state law product liability claim against Mazda, the Supreme Court yesterday ordered the South Carolina Supreme Court to re-examine its finding that state tort claims against Ford over window design were preempted by federal regulation. (H/t Law360 - sub required)

Last week’s decision against Mazda qualified the auto industry’s earlier victory in Honda v. Geier (2000), in which the Supreme Court...

In Flatbush, Brooklyn, hospital workers exposed newborn premature babies to extensive and repeated unnecessary radiation, according to a New York Times exposé published today. As is often the case, a state investigation into the alleged activity at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center was prompted not by self-reporting by the hospital but by the investigate efforts of the press.

In order to practice law, attorneys are required to participate in Continuing Legal Education seminars to keep abreast of developments in their areas of practice. No such requirement exists, however, for radiologists responsible for operating dangerous...

A few months ago, Professor Marcia Angell picked up her pen to describe the institutional failings of the FDA’s drug approval regime, and to make some suggestions for reform. Academic achievements aside, Angell is known for being a thorn in the pharmaceutical industry’s side, a tireless advocate for drug safety and efficacy. At big pharma’s profit party, Angell is, basically, a major buzzkill.

There is, Angell writes,

growing evidence that the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER, pronounced “cedar”), the part of the agency that regulates prescription drugs, has become the servant of the industry it regulates. This has resulted in the sale of drugs of uncertain...