Notable Quotes, May-June 2007

Margo Bagley was quoted in a May 31 TheStreet.com article about the effects on the pharmaceutical industry of the Supreme Court’s recent decision that existing patent-law guidelines were too strict. “Things will be tougher for Big Pharma,” she said. “Now, there is more flexibility for patent examiners in establishing that an invention is obvious, and that creates more challenges for patent applicants.” Inventors “will have to be more diligent” in making claims and providing data, she added.

Richard Bonnie discussed civil commitment laws in the May 13 Roanoke Times, saying that “residual questions about how they are administered . . . will continue to arise in every state that has them for some years to come. It’s a novel approach and constitutionally controversial.” As chair of an Institute of Medicine advisory committee urging higher cigarette taxes and increased regulation of tobacco, Bonnie discussed the committee’s report in several news stories. In the May 25 Washington Post, he said that “the nation’s goal should be to reduce tobacco use so substantially that it is no longer a significant public health problem.” “We are not talking about eliminating tobacco use,” he added in the May 25 Richmond Times Dispatch. “It is an anomaly that tobacco is essentially unregulated, when every other consumer product that poses a risk to consumers is regulated by any one of a number of federal agencies. It is time to correct that anomaly.” Bonnie discussed the work of the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, which he chairs, in several stories. “In my opinion, the need for reform is irrefutable,” he said in the June 23 Washington Post. “No one is satisfied with the current situation. The only question is how sweeping these reforms should be.”

In a June 29 Roanoke Times article about the Supreme Court’s decision striking down race-based practices to determine public school enrollment, Tomiko Brown-Nagin said that school districts across the country should brace for a torrent of litigation. “The upshot of this opinion is that the battle over how to integrate schools, if school districts want to do that, is going to be fought at the local level all over the country and it’s going to be hard for school boards,” she said. “But on the other hand, that’s democracy. School boards have to respond to their constituencies and people in localities have to think about race and what it means today.”

Anne Coughlin was quoted in a June 22 Richmond Times-Dispatch article comparing the dismissal of charges in the Duke lacrosse case with wrongful prosecutions of less wealthy defendants. “We’ve known for a really long time that the quality of justice depends on what’s in your bank account,” she said. “If you’re a poor person, whether black or white, who gets picked out of a photo lineup for rape by an eyewitness, you’re going to have a really tough time getting people to listen to you.” The former lacrosse players could hire zealous lawyers skilled in both the courthouse and the court of public opinion. “Indigent people simply are not going to have that power,” she said.

In a June 10 Waco Tribune-Herald article about a Texas appeals court notorious for the animosity among its judges, Earl Dudley said that it is important for appeals courts judges to maintain a high level of communication so that they can discuss cases and come to a reasoned decision. “Judges are people in public life and they know they have to have thick skins,” he said. “But if you get to the point where the court is not operating as a deliberate, collective body, you’ve got problems.”

Thomas Hafemeister was quoted in a May 12 Roanoke Times story about the prosecution of Purdue Pharma executives for their roles in marketing OxyContin’s strengths while downplaying its propensity for abuse and addiction. The executives had entered guilty pleas, even though the criminal charges resembled civil lawsuits the company had earlier defeated. “Certainly the government, when it decides to go after something like this, can bring a lot of resources to bear that a private litigant cannot,” Hafemeister noted. And when it came time to negotiate a plea agreement, company officials were facing the risk of jail time. “When you’re talking about white-collar criminals, that’s when they really start to squirm,” he said.

David Martin was quoted in a June 14 Port St. Lucie (Florida) News article about the failure to deport an illegal immigrant who was convicted of a crime in 2004 but recently stabbed another man to death. The disconnect between local authorities and federal immigration officials has been “an ongoing issue,” Martin said. “A lot of times it’s a sensitive local issue,” he added. “Police sometimes don’t want the connection to the Department of Homeland Security because they’re afraid people won’t report crimes for fear of being deported.”

On the June 28 NPR program All Things Considered, Thomas Nachbar discussed a Supreme Court decision giving manufacturers greater leeway to set minimum prices at the retail level. While manufacturers can try to force retailers to charge more for their products, Nachbar said he didn’t think that was likely to happen much. “I don’t think Wal-Mart has too much to worry about Sony saying, look, if you don’t sell our products for a certain price, we’re going to quit selling to you,” he said. “Because in many ways, Sony needs Wal-Mart more than Wal-Mart needs Sony.”

James Ryan was quoted in two stories about the Supreme Court’s school integration decision. In the June 29 Roanoke Times, he noted the significant “gray area” in Justice Kennedy’s opinion and said “It’s just not clear how far these general race-conscious measures can go.” In the June 30 New York Times, Ryan said that trends towards socioeconomic integration may be accelerated by the new court ruling. “Districts that have been worrying about racial integration may think more about economic integration,” he said. “I understand why people focus on school funding, but until you address the problem of segregation of poor kids, it’s wishful thinking to expect the money to translate into accomplishment.”

Christopher Sprigman was quoted in a May California Lawyer article about proposed legislation that would provide the fashion industry with intellectual property protections. He questioned whether protections would be counterproductive. “I can’t tell you that this bill is going to wreck the fashion industry,” he said, “but it puts its creative process under threat.” In the May 3 New York Times, Sprigman discussed the distribution by Internet users of a secret code used to prevent piracy of high-definition movies. He said that those who published the codes may be exposing themselves to legal risk, but that the entertainment and technology industries would have no realistic way to pursue a legal remedy. “It’s a gigantic can of worms they’ve opened, and now it will be awfully hard to do anything with lawsuits,” he said.

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