Vaccine Court Prevails; PPACA Constitutional
Two notable court rulings:
One by the Supremes, who ruled in a 6-2 decision* yesterday that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 "preempts all design defect claims against vaccine manufacturers brought by plaintiffs who seek compensation for injury or death caused by vaccine side effects." The crux of the decision was the statutory text,
No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable in a civil action for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated with the administration of a vaccine after October 1, 1988, if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and accompanied by proper directions and warnings,
with much parsing of the words "unavoidable" and "even though" by Justice Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. Justice Sotomayor, along with Justice Ginsberg, "respectfully" dissented, concentrating on the same phrasing.
It should be noted that the case of the allegedly injured plaintiff, Hannah Bruesewitz, had been considered by a Special Master of the US Court of Federal Claims (aka the "Vaccine Court") in 1995. However, the Special Master denied the Bruesewitz's claims "on various grounds"; nevertheless, they were awarded $126,800 in attorney's fees and costs. The plaintiffs rejected this decision and sought recompense in a Pennsylvania state court—an action that was intended to be prevented by National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The crux of the plaintiffs' argument was that the vaccine design was defective.
The other decision is by Judge Glady Kessler of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, who has ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Kessler evidently poo-poohed the idea that a decision to not buy health insurance is inactivity—citing such an argument as "pure semantics." She wrote, "Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something." Her decision is in direct contradistinction to separate rulings made by a Virginia judge (Henry Hudson) and a Florida judge (Roger Vinson), who declared PPACA (or parts of it) unconstitutional. Kessler joins 2 other federal judges, 1 in Virginia and 1 in Michigan, who favor the wording of PPACA. To date, the judges' decisions are predicted by the party of the President who appointed them.
* Kagan "took no part."
