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Federal Preemption Part IV - Is all federal preemption bad?

By Steve Lombardi

The answer is no.

Federal preemption is not all bad. I can see why it’s necessary in the area of immigration as well as national defense. I can appreciate how society benefits when applied to telecommunications regulations and federal highway design. But when applied to products that cause people harm in any way it’s a club being applied to those of us who can least afford the economic consequences. These people I’m talking about are not some greedy plaintiff looking for a litigation lottery ticket. They are someone’s grandparent or like the Quaid’s their infant children. They are you and me and your next store neighbors and coworkers. They are real people with real bills and real disabilities. They are widows whose lifestyle has gone from the country club crowd to living in an apartment with barely enough income to support a small family. They no longer have the means to go on a vacation or buy a car. They are placed in the unenviable position of making hard choices between choosing how much food they can realistically afford for the week. They live on macaroni and cheese, tuna fish and the cheapest hamburger. They aren’t destitute, but they live just above the poverty line and at times under that thin red line.

No one is asking for a free lunch. Far from it. We are asking our Congressmen and Congresswomen to design legislation that protects us, the people that vote, rather than the corporations who line their reelection coffers with lobbyist dollars. We are asking them to stop writing legislation that creates two Americas. The one they live in with corporate America and ours.

The United States Constitution says, “We the People…” The people to whom it refers are us, not corporate American. The people are you and me.

You may believe you don’t count. You may think you don’t have the time to do anything. You may not know what to do. But there is one thing you can do and that’s write to your Congressperson and demand they protect your children, your spouse and others by stating in all legislation that the right to sue for civil damages in a state court and under state laws is preserved. That the legislation being passed is not intended to take away individual state rights to seek compensation under traditional state tort laws. Copy this paragraph if you must. I encourage you to do so. Just get involved.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).