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Legislation and Regulation Keyed to Eskridge, 1st Ed.
Heckler v. Chaney
Citation:
470 U.S. 821, 105 S. Ct. 1649, 84 L. Ed. 2d 714 (1985)Facts
Several prison inmates sentenced to death by lethal injection petitioned the FDA, claiming that the drugs used for executions violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) because they were not approved for this purpose and could cause a painful death. They requested the FDA to take various enforcement actions, including requiring warning labels, seizing the drugs from state prisons, and prosecuting those in the distribution chain. The FDA Commissioner refused, stating that even if the FDA had jurisdiction, it had discretion to decline enforcement in this area. The Commissioner noted that enforcement actions were typically initiated only when there was a serious danger to public health or fraud, neither of which was present in state lethal injection laws. The inmates sued, and while the District Court found the FDA’s decision unreviewable, the Court of Appeals reversed, finding “law to apply” in an FDA policy statement and concluding that the refusal was an abuse of discretion.
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