More news that should serve as a warning to the American public that the products that they buy on their grocery store shelves and that they purchase as over the counter drugs or as prescription medicine should not be blindly trusted: it seems that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just been sued by six doctors and scientists – all former employees of the FDA.
Why? These top professionals have filed a lawsuit because they have found out that the FDA was spying on these doctors’ and scientists’ personal email accounts (Gmail).
Seems that the FDA was interested in reading the personal emails of these Six FDA Employees because these six individuals had had the courage to tell members of Congress that they were concerned because the FDA was going ahead and approving products which these six FDA employees thought were NOT SAFE.
Media investigations have occurred and now, the news stories include the release of federal government documents confirming that the personal emails were monitored, and for a long time, too. Apparently, according to a Washington Post expose, the FDA employees’ personal email accounts were being spied upon for over two years.
Here, though, the big news isn’t a media scoop. Here, these six courageous individuals haven’t just voiced concerns to Congress — now, they’ve gone and filed a civil lawsuit in federal court based upon the sneaky behavior of the FDA. They are claiming damages to their careers because of what’s happened, among other things.
It’s going to be more of a right of privacy case more than a fight over whether or not those products are indeed unsafe. The safety of the products are not the focus of this litigation (but should be a very, very big lesson to us all).
Was the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution violated when the FDA instituted surveillance on its own employees? (The FDA, of course, will argue no; that by using the work computers, these folk couldn’t have any reasonable expectation of privacy.)
Bottom line, products liability laws exist in Indiana and Illinois and every other state in the union because all too often, Americans are hurt or killed by products (food and drugs among them) that they have legitimately purchased at a store with the expectation that the product is safe to use. Americans cannot depend upon manufacturers, distributors, sellers, etc. to protect them from dangerous products. Unsafe products are put into the marketplace all the time.
Now, the Federal and Drug Administration’s dependability and integrity has been called into question by this agency spying upon employees who were whistleblowing about product safety to members of Congress.
If you or a loved one has been hurt or injured or even suffered a wrongful death because of food or drugs or medication — then your most solid and dependable avenue of justice remains with the personal injury system of justice and filing a products liability lawsuit under state law.
