Obama Tackles Federal Preemption of State Safety Laws

by Natasha Chart · 2009-05-22 10:51:00 UTC
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And federal preemption in general. Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft writes the following about hitting the back button on regulations that prevented consumers suing companies according to state and local laws in a number of policy areas:

... This will irritate the Chamber of Commerce types who have no interest in "states' rights" when those rights include a consumer's right to sue businesses under state law. Business interests persuaded the Bush administration (and have often persuaded federal courts) that state law should be preempted by federal law to spare businesses the burden of complying with 50 different standards of liability. Of course, businesses aren't forced to do business in 50 different states, and it hardly seems unfair that they be subjected to the laws of those states in which they choose to do business. ...

Well, good. Sometimes state laws are more protective of consumers.

So maybe this means that California can keep downer cows out of their food supply. Maybe it will return control of seed law to local governments.

Medical device manufacturers are adamantly opposed to ending FDA's preemption authority, rounding up patients from all over the country who've been convinced that extending stronger consumer protections would be the death of medical innovation. Yep, if manufacturers have to avoid killing or injuring their customers, they could no longer heal them and would stop marketing new products. By that logic, food companies, also, would stop selling food if they couldn't occasionally get away with giving people Salmonella or E. Coli infections.

That's logic for you. Just, whimper.

Natasha Chart
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