Campaign for Responsible Transplantation v. Food & Drug Administration, 180 F. Supp. 2d 29 (D.D.C. 2001)
Case Summary:
We represented the Campaign For Responsible Transplantation in a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's withholding of documents relating to clinical trials involving "xenotransplantation" - a new and risky form of biotechnology, in which live animal cells, tissue, and organs are transplanted into the human body to treat disease. This new biotechnology is virtually unregulated by existing laws, and poses many significant ethical, public health, and animal welfare issues. The Court ordered the Food and Drug Administration to justify its position that thousands of records concerning xenotransplantation clinical trials may be withheld from public view under the Freedom of Information Act, see Campaign for Responsible Transplantation v. FDA, 180 F. Supp.2d 29 (D.D.C. 2001), as a result of which many additional documents were released. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld plaintiffs' eligibility for attorneys' fees, Campaign for Responsible Transplantation v. FDA, 511 F.3d 187 (D.C. Cir. 2007) and the district court agreed that plaintiffs' were entitled to fees. See Campaign for Responsible Transplantation v. FDA, 593 F. Supp. 2d 236 (D.D.C. 2009).
Plaintiffs: Campaign for Responsible Transplantation
Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia