Supreme Court considers whether drug companies can poison patients and get away with it

Supreme Court considers whether drug companies can poison patients and get away with it
The country is in rough shape.
Ian Millhiser
Jan 4, 2019, 9:25 am


Almost two decades ago, a professional guitarist named Diana Levine received an injection of a drug called Phenergan. It was supposed to relieve nausea from a migraine. Instead, it triggered irreversible gangrene.

Levine lost her right forearm and her livelihood. With just one hand, she could no longer play the guitar.

Levine’s lawsuit against the drug’s manufacture, Wyeth v. Levine, triggered a minor panic in the consumer rights community when it reached the Supreme Court a decade ago. The business-friendly Roberts Court seemed likely to absolve Wyeth of liability and leave Levine with nothing.

Instead, the Court broke 6-3 in Levine’s favor, with Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas crossing over to vote with the Court’s liberal bloc.

Ten years later, a similar case involving closely related legal questions is before the Supreme Court in Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht, which will be argued on Monday. But the Court itself looks very different. Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and most significantly Kennedy, are all retired — and all of them were in the majority in Levine. Kennedy’s replacement is a hardline conservative likely to join the dissenters from Levine.

That means that the fate of thousands of Americans who face injuries similar to Levine is in jeopardy. And the question of whether the drug companies that injured this individuals will ever be held accountable could rest a man who is ordinarily the Court’s most conservative voice — Justice Thomas.

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https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-poison-drug-merck-624b1ce0ed43/