On July 24, 2020, the Ninth Circuit held that a pharmaceutical trade group lacked standing to bring a lawsuit to enjoin a controversial new California law that imposes liability on drug makers for settling patent litigation. The decision was a disappointment for WLF, which filed an amicus brief in the case joined by the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. As WLF’s brief argued, by elevating state law over federal law, California’s AB 824 erects several major obstacles to the accomplishment of federal law, frustrates the policy aims of Congress, and is thus preempted under the Supremacy Clause. Rather than reach that issue, the appeals court held that the plaintiff, the Association for Accessible Medicines, had not shown a “substantial risk” that AB 824 would cause imminent harm to any of its members.
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