The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has “lost its moorings on almost every front” according to a recently published column posted on the news site American Greatness. The column takes a hard-hitting look at the Chamber’s coordinated campaign to support Johnson & Johnson’s certiorari petition to the United States Supreme Court that challenges the $2.1 billion judgment of the Missouri Court of Appeals in the talc-ovarian cancer litigation.
Authored by leading conservative activist Ned Ryun, “Shilling for Corporations Is Not a Conservative Principle” reviews the background of the 2018 trial in which The Lanier Law Firm successfully represented 22 plaintiffs who developed ovarian cancer from long-term use of J&J’s powder products.
The trial jury was presented with mountains of evidence that J&J was aware their talc mines had asbestos veins and that there was no way to keep the asbestos out of the powder. The jury heard further evidence that since the 1960s and continuing through the early 2000s, J&J went to great lengths to obfuscate and hide the fact that its asbestos-laced powder products were dangerous and could cause cancer in women—including ghostwriting clinical studies and misleading the FDA for the simple purpose of making huge profits.
The article notes that J&J is not challenging the evidence of asbestos in its powder products. The company’s legal stance is that the plaintiffs with the same disease from the same cause should not be joined together in litigation if the specific details of their lives are not identical. As the article points out “the U.S. Chamber of Commerce bootlickers rallied enough corporatist money to hurl 14 amicus briefs at the justices” to support J&J’s position.
By “shilling” for J&J, Mr. Ryun notes that the Chamber is essentially supporting the practices of a company willing to sacrifice consumers to maximize its profits.
Click here to read the full column on the American Greatness site.
