Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf
Page Number: 4

Cite as:  562 U. S. ____ (2011) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 09–152 
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RUSSELL BRUESEWITZ, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. 

WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., FKA WYETH

LABORATORIES, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

 [February 22, 2011] 

JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court. 
We consider whether a preemption provision enacted in
the  National  Childhood  Vaccine  Injury  Act  of  1986
(NCVIA)1  bars  state-law  design-defect  claims  against
vaccine manufacturers. 

I 

A 

For the last 66 years, vaccines have been subject to the
same  federal  premarket  approval  process  as  prescription 
drugs,  and  compensation  for  vaccine-related  injuries  has
been  left  largely  to  the  States.2    Under  that  regime,  the 
elimination of communicable diseases through vaccination 
became “one of the greatest achievements” of public health
in  the  20th  century.3   But  in  the  1970’s  and  1980’s  vac-

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1 42 U. S. C. §300aa–22(b)(1). 
2 See  P.  Hutt,  R.  Merrill,  &  L.  Grossman,  Food  and  Drug  Law  912–

913, 1458 (3d ed. 2007). 

3 Centers for Disease Control, Achievements in Public Health, 1900– 
1999:  Impact  of  Vaccines  Universally  Recommended  for  Children,  48 
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 243, 247 (Apr. 2, 1999).