Court won’t stop hormone replacement lawsuits
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t reconsider a decision to reinstate more than 100 lawsuits filed by women who claimed that hormone replacement therapy caused breast cancer.
The high court refused on Tuesday to hear an appeal from Wyeth LLC and other pharmaceutical companies.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge’s decision to throw out many of the lawsuits.
The drug companies wanted the case in federal court, and said plaintiffs added unrelated local defendants to ensure it would stay in state court. A federal judge agreed, and dismissed many of the lawsuits. But the appeal court overturned that ruling, saying that it had not been proven that the women had done anything wrong.
The case is Wyeth LLC v. Kirkland, 10-222.
Court: Does U.S. terrorism law apply to jealous wife
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether a U.S. anti-terrorism law should have been used to prosecute a jealous woman who tried to harm her husband’s mistress with deadly chemicals.
The high court on Tuesday agreed to hear an appeal from Carol Anne Bond. She was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to trying to harm her romantic rival with toxic chemicals.
A laboratory technician said she put the chemicals on her rival’s door handle and in the tailpipe of her rival’s car. The victim was not injured.
Bond’s lawyers say the 1999 chemical-weapon law in play here was intended to deal with rogue states and terrorists, not a woman in a love triangle. They want the case thrown out.
Court rejects appeal of 2 ejected from Bush event
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned down the appeal of two people who say they were kept from attending an appearance by then-President George W. Bush in Denver in 2005 because of their opposition to the war in Iraq.
The justices refused Tuesday to get involved in a case concerning whether people may be excluded from taxpayer-funded events featuring public officials because of their political views.
Lower courts dismissed a lawsuit filed by Leslie Weise and Alex Young, who say a White House aide and two volunteers violated their free speech rights by ejecting them from a hall just before Bush was to speak. Weise and Young arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading “No blood for oil” but say they had no plans to disrupt the event.
Court won’t reconsider tax targeting nude bars
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t stop Utah from enacting a tax that hits only adult-oriented businesses.
The high court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from Denali, LLC, which wanted to overturn a decision by the Utah Supreme Court.
That court upheld a 2004 decision by the Utah Legislature to enact a 10 percent tax on sexually explicit businesses in an effort to pay for sex offender treatment. The tax covered everything a sexually explicitly business sold — admission, T-shirts and hamburgers included.
A group of strip clubs challenged the constitutionality of the law, saying it was overly broad and violated their First Amendment rights. But the state’s Supreme Court upheld the tax.
Court hears case about vaccine side effects
WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents who say their daughter allegedly suffered serious health problems from a childhood vaccine are trying to persuade the Supreme Court to allow them to sue the manufacturer.
The justices heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could open drug makers to a flood of lawsuits over the side effects of vaccines, including those from families of autistic children claiming that mercury-based thimerosal is linked to autism. Numerous studies have addressed vaccines and autism and found no link, including with the preservative thimerosal.
Drug companies, and the Obama administration, argue that the claims should be decided by a special vaccine court that was set up 24 years ago to insure a stable vaccine supply by shielding companies from most lawsuits.
