March 10, 2006

Judge Diane Sykes of the Seventh Circuit, who for five years herself sat as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, gave a Hallows Lecture at Marquette March 7 (PDF) rebuking that court for its recent and unprincipled lurch into pro-plaintiff activism. In particular, Sykes analyzes -- and finds wanting -- the court's decision to strike down legislated limits on medical malpractice awards (in the process, inventing a completely novel mutation of the "rational basis" test) and its embrace of market-share liability in suits against lead-paint manufacturers, a theory that no other state has seen fit to adopt (via Althouse).