[Download] "Chevron's Sliding Scale in Wyeth V. Levine." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Chevron's Sliding Scale in Wyeth V. Levine.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 261 KB
Description
For years now, courts and commentators have struggled to reconcile the presumption against preemption--the interpretive canon that presumes against federal incursion into areas of traditional state sovereignty--with the Chevron doctrine, which instructs courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes. Last Term, in Wyeth v. Levine, the Court held that the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug labeling requirements did not preempt a state law failure-to-warn claim against a drug manufacturer. (1) In so holding, the Court found no entitlement to deference for an FDA regulatory preamble in favor of preemption. This decision provides further fodder for those critics focused on the Court's long history of seemingly arbitrary reliance on agency input and haphazard application of the presumption against preemption. (2) A close examination, however, reveals both why the Court has been reluctant to apply an across-the-board standard of deference to agency views and what an appropriate framework for agency deference might look like. The Court's inconsistent approach to preemption cases results from its intense focus on congressional intent. A different approach would satisfy critics of the Court's inconsistency while allowing the Court to retain its focus on congressional intent: accord greater deference to agency views when Congress speaks clearly through an express preemption provision and lesser deference when Congress is silent. In Wyeth, the Court considered the common law negligence claim of Diane Levine against the drug manufacturer Wyeth. Levine, suffering from a severe migraine headache, consented to a physician assistant's administration of Phenergan, a drug manufactured by the defendant. (3) The drug can be administered either intramuscularly or intravenously, and intravenous administration can be performed by either the IV-drip method or the faster but riskier IV-push method. (4) Because her symptoms were severe and an initial administration of the drug had failed to provide relief, the physician assistant administered the drug via the IV-push method, which promises faster relief but also carries a risk of significant side effects. (5) The drug is corrosive, and if it escapes from the vein into surrounding tissue it causes irreversible gangrene. (6) Unfortunately, in Levine's case this precise danger was realized. As the physician assistant administered the drug, it escaped the vein and came in contact with arterial blood, resulting in gangrene and eventually requiring the amputation of Levine's right forearm. (7) As a result of this amputation, Levine incurred substantial medical expenses and was forced to abandon her career as a professional musician. (8)