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Back in March, Stephanie Mencimer wrote a story for MotherJones.com about Daniel Troy, the former chief counsel to the Food and Drug Administration. As FDA, chief, Troy introduced a questionable legal theory called preemption, in which agency lawyers would show up in state courts and argue that companies whose products had been approved by the FDA were protected from lawsuits even if they injured people in violation of state laws. Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee released a report (PDF) revealing that “key FDA career officials strongly objected to Bush Administration drug labeling regulations that would preempt state liability lawsuits.” According to the report, FDA career officials said “that the central justifications for the regulations were ‘false and misleading'” and warned “that the changes would deprive consumers of timely information about drug hazards.” In her story, Stephanie explained how much the FDA’s embrace of preemption represented a break from the past:

Promoting preemption is a radical new policy for the FDA, which has long believed that, far from interfering with its mission, state tort lawsuits actually enhanced public safety by providing a financial incentive for companies to comply with federal regulations. Troy’s predecessor, Margaret Porter, a career official, wrote in 1997 that the agency had a long-standing policy against preemption, because “even the most thorough regulation of a product such as a critical medical device may fail to identify potential problems presented by the product…. Preemption of all such [tort liability] claims would result in the loss of a significant layer of consumer protection.”

Unfortunately for the conscientious FDA career officials named in the oversight committee’s report, Daniel Troy’s legal innovation may become the law of the land. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Wyeth v. Levine. Stephanie explains the stakes:

The plaintiff in Wyeth v. Levine is a musician who won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict after her arm was amputated due to an improperly administered drug. The drug company, Wyeth, is arguing that the verdict should be overturned because the FDA’s 2006 preemption preamble on drug labeling bans such lawsuits. If Wyeth wins, essentially all private, state-court lawsuits over dangerous drugs and medical devices will be wiped out—and a window into the workings of the companies poorly regulated by the FDA will be boarded up.

MotherJones.com will have full coverage of the case next week. Apparently there’s an election happening, too: make sure you follow MoJo Blog for the latest developments.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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