Harvard Law & Policy Review

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Seeing Red: Tomatoes, Salmonella, Takings, & Torts

By Tommy Tobin* It’s an unfortunate reality that food can sometimes make people sick. In just one year, nearly 20,000 Americans were hospitalized due to Salmonella bacteria alone, and over 375 individuals died. In concert with other agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays a leading role in preventing foodborne illness. For scientists, pinpointing the exact cause of a foodborne illness is difficult. They race against time to find the source, down to the farm, plant, or …

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When Zero Means Some, Confusion Reigns

By Lisa Heinzerling* As I have argued elsewhere, the transparency achieved by federal laws relating to food is only partial, and sometimes only serves to conceal a lie. If one wanted to see this principle in operation, one might turn to a recent federal district court decision from California. In Backus v. Nestlé, the court granted a motion to dismiss a state-law consumer protection complaint objecting to the use and labeling of artificial trans fats in Nestlé's "Coffee-mate" products. The …

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Guerrilla War Against the Eighth Amendment: The Supreme Court Battles Over Off-Label Drug Lethal Injections

By Rose Carmen Goldberg* A series of botched executions over the past several years has engendered increasing criticism of lethal injection. These high-profile miscarriages have involved prolonged visible suffering, including violent spasms and outcries about intolerable pain. Death row inmates are turning to courts for protection from painful deaths like these. Last month the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in its first lethal injection case since 2008, Glossip v. Gross. The challenge, …

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