New U.S. Supreme Court preemption decision: Wyeth v. Levine

This morning, the Supreme Court just handed down its opinion in Wyeth v. Levine, ___ U.S. ___ (Mar. 4, 2009). The Court held, by a vote of 6 to 3, that the FDA's approval of the defendant's labeling of its medical device did not preempt plaintiffs' state law product liability (failure to warn) claim. This decision is generally viewed as a companion to Altria Group, Inc. v. Good, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 538 (Dec. 16, 2008) (discussed in this blog post), in which the Court held that the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (15 U.S.C. §§1331 et seq.) did not preempt a state-law claim for deceptive advertising of light cigarettes.

The New York Times has more on the Wyeth decision in this article.