Federal pre-emption of state-law claims medical-device manufacturers

This issue keeps turning up on SCOTUS' docket every few years like the proverbial bad penny. Most recently, it takes the form of Riegel v. Medtronic, No. 06-179. The petition for certiorari to the Second Circuit is pending, and after it was considered by the Court at its Nov. 3 conference, the justices invited the Solicitor General's office (on Nov. 6) to file a brief addressing the

It's been a long time . . .

. . . not just a long time, actually: It's been a of a long time since my last post, due mostly to conferences and speeches the past few weeks at the Maguire Center for Ethics, combined with some speechifying of my own, on top of teaching, cranking out a new poetry column for the Dallas Morning News (scheduled for this Sunday's paper), and a few other official chores PLUS(arthroscopic surgery on

Bones and tissue stolen by undertakers and sold illegally

This CNN story is just the latest in a long line of exposés of the apparently irremediably corrupt bones-and-tissue market. How long can this business go without significant regulation? USA Today had a good report on the situation in June 2006. The illustration to the right, by the way, shows an X-ray of a corpse whose leg bones were surreptitiously removed and replaced with household PVC pipe,