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TechnoratiDo you think the executives at Medtronic learned any lessons?
The big winners, of course, are the corporations which the FDA regulates. Sadly recent events suggest that FDA bureaucrats view the corporations they regulate as their principal constituency, rather than the American people whose safety is affected by the drugs and devices they allow to be put on the market. The blessing of the FDA in cases like Riegel immunizes corporate wrongdoers from accountability and tramples upon the rights of the individual. The great equalizer between the weak and the powerful, the local jury, is not an option for an injured victim. Neither is petitioning one's own state or local government for relief since their traditional authority has been preempted by the feds.
Wherever conservatives gather, state's rights and smaller government has been the mustering call. But when it comes to protecting the right to seek redress before a jury of one's peers, a quintessential conservative principle, the ranks are slim. Though conservatives maintain they trust the people, many do not act that way when it comes to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Conservatives have often been in the foreground of undermining the right to trial by jury. As that right erodes, however, the principles of limited government and personal accountability will crumble.
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Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, DC and a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represented Governor Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case. Connor was formally President of the Family Research Council, Chairman of the Board of CareNet, and Vice Chairman of Americans United for Life. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.ajustsociety.org. Your feedback is welcome; please email info@ajustsociety.org
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