"The court agreed Monday to consider Matrixx Initiatives Inc.’s challenge to a securities lawsuit alleging the company failed to disclose to investors that some users of its Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel products allegedly lost their sense of smell. At issue is the question of when pharmaceutical companies have a duty to disclose incident reports about users who experience adverse side effects after taking a drug. "
blogs.wsj.com
June 14, 2010, 11:15 AM ET Scotus Roundup: The Next Two Weeks Will be Very, Very Busy
By Ashby Jones
Oh those Supreme Court clerks. So smart. So pedigreed. So set up for high-flying legal careers.
And between now and the end of the month, boy will they be overworked.
The Supreme Court handed three opinions on Monday, leaving them with 21 left to be decided, according to Scotusblog. Still to be handed down: the Bilski case, involving the validity of business-method patents; U.S. v. McDonald, on the constitutionality of a gun-control ordinance in Chicago; a handful of cases dealing with the constitutionality of the federal statute criminalizing the deprivation of “honest-services”; and a host of other high-profile (and not-so-high-profile) cases.
The court has to deal with all of this before the term ends at the end of this month. If it all feels to you like so much cramming for final exams, well, you’re not alone.
So what did the court rule on Monday? The most noteworthy goings on concerned not what they ruled on cases in the ‘09-’10 term, but what they’ll hear in the ‘10-’11 term. The roundup:
The high court on Monday agreed to reconsider a lower court decision on the fate of Scott Pinholster. The Ninth Circuit threw out Pinholster’s death sentence because his lawyer did not give a jury evidence of mental illness during the penalty phase of his murder trial. The San Francisco-based court said that evidence might have persuaded the jury to reject the death sentence. Pinholster was convicted in 1984 of killing two men during a burglary in Los Angeles.
The court won’t get involved in an Indiana town’s fight to close an adult book and movie store. The court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the city of New Albany, Ind. City officials have been trying to shut down New Albany DVD since 2004.
The court agreed Monday to consider Matrixx Initiatives Inc.’s challenge to a securities lawsuit alleging the company failed to disclose to investors that some users of its Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel products allegedly lost their sense of smell. At issue is the question of when pharmaceutical companies have a duty to disclose incident reports about users who experience adverse side effects after taking a drug.
The court also rejected an appeal from a Canadian engineer who was caught up in the U.S. government’s secret transfer of terror suspects to other countries. The court ended Syrian-born Maher Arar’s quest to sue top U.S. officials. Arar says he was mistaken for a terrorist when he was changing planes in New York on his way home to Canada, a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was instead sent to Syria, where he claims he was tortured.
For more, including quick writeups on the court’s rulings, check out this post at Scotusblog. For a good overview of the court’s term so far, check out this WSJ graphic.
« Previous
As Prop. 8 Case Resumes, Questions Linger over Olson’s Role Next »
Nacchio Learns the Hard Way the Miseries of ‘Con Air’ |
