The cruel truth of tort reform? Here’s something that is so horrific and unexplainable, I’m still trying to
wrap my brain around it, from Uppity Wisconsin via Cognitive Dissidence:
There must be a lot of anti-recall money at stake, because Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican cronies in the legislature are moving at breakneck speed to pass a bill to take away the rights of children poisoned by lead paint from collecting from the paint companies who manufactured the stuff, as we reported here.
On exactly 24 hours notice, the State Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, Jan. 19, only on SB-373, the bill that would overturn a State Supreme Court decision allowing the victims to sue paint manufacturers. The bill was just introduced on Jan. 10, the day after things went badly for the poison merchants in a federal appeals court hearing in Chicago. Within hours of the hearing, State Sen. Glenn Grothman ordered the bill jacketed and introduced it the next day.
What the bill would do would throw out cases filed by 173 victims trying to collect for injuries done to them by lead paint. Some have been pending for several years, but the bill would retroactively kill those lawsuits.
What, they’re doing it for the kids? What's next, the new lead abate law?
The Leg Council's memo replying: “Although it is impossible to predict how a court would apply this test in a similar circumstance, based on prior holdings of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the retroactive elements of the bill raise significant constitutional concerns.”
The memo went on to cite three specific cases in which the court found retroactive legislation to be unconstitutional.
You can’t tell me this won’t be a part of the recall
election for Walker and the 4 senators who are behind this assault.
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