The result for the defendant (a “distributor of ophthalmologic supplies”) in the False Claims Act decision, United States ex rel. Fesenmaier v. Cameron-Ehlen Group, Inc., ___ F. Supp.3d ___, 2024 WL 489708 (D. Minn. Feb. 8, 2024), was so terrible that something good ended up happening.Continue Reading FCA Verdict Slashed as Unconstitutional Excessive Fine
Constitutional Law
Tear Down the Goalposts – Rutgers Wins

Bexis was a mere college freshman, and a Princeton football manager, on September 28, 1974. In the first game of the season, Rutgers played Princeton at Princeton’s old (and rather decrepit) Palmer Stadium. With about three minutes to go and Rutgers up 6-0, Rutgers fans swarmed the field and tore down both sets of goalposts. When Princeton tied the game up with less than half a minute left, without goalposts we could not kick an extra point. A two point conversion failed, and Rutgers escaped with a tie.
Not quite half a century later, Rutgers scored an actual win. This time Bexis is pleased. In Children’s Health Defense, Inc. v. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, ___ F.4th ___, 2024 WL 637353 (3d Cir. Feb. 15, 2024) (“CHD”), the Third Circuit affirmed the right of a publicly supported university to require COVID-19 vaccination as a prerequisite to its students’ in-person attendance. We blogged about this outcome in the district court, and its precedential affirmance is even more significant.Continue Reading Tear Down the Goalposts – Rutgers Wins
Vaccine Mandates and Religion at the Supreme Court

Last term the newly empowered conservative majority on the Supreme Court demonstrated to all that precedent is not so precedential, even when it had stood for nearly fifty years. They very nearly did it again, but just missed, targeting precedent on religious exemptions and vaccine mandates that has been around for more than twice as long.Continue Reading Vaccine Mandates and Religion at the Supreme Court
Appellate Court Rejects More Bogus Jurisdictional Arguments

Litigation tourist plaintiffs have been taking it on the chin lately when it comes to personal jurisdiction. Here’s another example. Durham v. LG Chem, Ltd., 2022 WL 274498 (11th Cir. Jan. 31, 2022), is not a drug and device case and not precedential (note: the Fed. Appx. reporter is no more), but is nonetheless…
Another University Win On A Challenge To A COVID-19 Vaccine Policy

We have tried to be pretty balanced in addressing a number of decisions over the last few months relating to lawsuits brought by the euphemistically labeled “vaccine hesitant” and their brethren who advocate aggressively for entitlement to “alternative” medical treatments like anti-parasitic (veterinary) drugs. We have been restrained in treating these lawsuits as having been…
Yes, the Government Can Still Require Vaccination

We reported two weeks ago on the poorly conceived and ill-fated attempt by students to enjoin a public university from mandating COVID-19 vaccines. There simply is no fundamental right under the Constitution to refuse vaccination, which has been firmly established for more than 100 years. Now the Seventh Circuit has agreed.
Let’s be candid about…
Survival of the Vaxxest

All of us are long-time defenders of prescription medical product manufacturers, and some of us are veterans of the vaccine wars of the 1980s and 1990s involving DPT vaccine and thimerosal. We are big fans of vaccines and the tremendous health benefits they have bestowed on humanity, and are mystified by the alliance between anti-vaccine…
Yes, The Government Can Require Vaccination

The last time we wrote about vaccines, we received a lot of emails. Vaccines are a hot-button issue for some, although we firmly believe they should not be. Vaccines have prevented disease in millions and millions of people and are among the most important public health developments of all time.
When we wrote that…
And Now for Something Completely Different

Anyone remember Monty Python’s first movie, before anyone had ever heard of them? Along with the dead parrot and the Lumberjack Song, “And Now For Something Completely Different” featured a formally dressed man, sitting at an unexceptional desk, both of the sort you might find in a British law firm of the era (early…