Riegel Arguments Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Riegel v. Medtronic, the medical device preemption case in which we've filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs on behalf of state and local officials.

Warming Law offered a detailed overview of the case when the Supreme Court decided to grant cert., and CRC Executive Director Doug Kendall just published an essay in Slate this afternoon pointing out the flaws in current preemption doctrine coming from the Court. Tomorrow morning we should also have a guest essay up over at Gristmill laying out the case's potential importance for current and future global warming litigation, particularly in wake of positive signals and impacts from the Court's ruling in Mass v. EPA. CNNMoney.com and the St. Paul Pioneer Press also have previewed oral arguments.

Allison Zieve from Public Citizen will be arguing the case on behalf of the Riegels, while Medtronic will be represented by former Solicitor General Ted Olson (now with the Los-Angeles-based law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, which also happens to be representing the auto industry in the clean cars lawsuits). Also participating is Olson's successor, Paul Clement, who has intervened on behalf of the FDA's support for preemption.