med tronnic. the court held 8-1 that f.d.a.'s regime for medical divines pre-empted all state law -- devices pre-empted all state law taught suits -- the f.d.a. allowed to be marketed caused physical injuries. i was the lone dissenter in that case. wyeth v. lavigne involved drugs rather than devices, and the absence of a preemings clause in that statute -- pre-emption clause in that statute proved as positive. tort laws and the state law could be maintained the court held 6-3, claims for inadequate warnings on drug labels. caperton v.a.t. massy coal company came with a record resembling john grisham's novel "the appeal." the case involved a $50 million jury verdict in favor of caperton, who charged that the coal company's predatory practices drove him out of business. the west virginia supreme court, dividing 3-2, reversed a judgment for caperton and declared victory for the coal company. there was one problem. justice benjamin, who cast the deciding vote in west virginia's highest court, was newly-elected to the court. the coal

med tronnic. the court held 8-1 that f.d.a.'s regime for medical divines pre-empted all state law -- devices pre-empted all state law taught suits -- the f.d.a. allowed to be marketed caused physical injuries. i was the lone dissenter in that case. wyeth v. lavigne involved drugs rather than devices, and the absence of a preemings clause in that statute -- pre-emption clause in that statute proved as positive. tort laws and the state law tort laws and the state law could be maintained the court held 6-3, claims for inadequate warnings on drug labels. caperton v. a.c. massy

wrote the opinions in both of those cases, and then last term, in a case called regald versus med tronnic, it was an opinion on medical devices an justice stevens didn't like it but concurred in the opinion and pointed out why it didn't undermine the previous opinions he had written and then these therm terms come along and he has the majority vote. if you are a practitioner and i argued a couple of these cases, you have no idea what will happen with preemption unless you can figure out a way to persuade enough justices that they will outweigh justice stevens because he has written on every single one of these cases. ly make one final point. a a lot depends on what the agency does. in the obama administration, the president issued an executive order instructing agencies basically to vote through all of their regulations an scrub them clean of any ambiguities, in other words, only preemptions. don't saying regulations with your conduct preempts the state tort suits unless it is fairly clear. those regulations will affect what the future decisions are going to be. >> judge, i would like to