Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf
Page Number: 42.0

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

13 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

mation of petitioners’ reading of §22(b)(1). 

In sum, the text, structure, and legislative history of the 
Vaccine  Act  are  fully  consistent  with  petitioners’  reading
of  §22(b)(1).    Accordingly,  I  believe  §22(b)(1)  exempts 
vaccine  manufacturers  from  tort  liability  only  upon  a 
showing by the manufacturer in each case that the vaccine 
was properly manufactured and labeled, and that the side 
effects stemming from the vaccine’s design could not have
been prevented by a feasible alternative design that would 
have  eliminated  the  adverse  side  effects  without  compro-
mising the vaccine’s cost and utility. 

II 
In  contrast  to  the  interpretation  of  §22(b)(1)  set  forth
above, the majority’s interpretation does considerable vio-
lence  to  the  statutory  text,  misconstrues  the  legislative
history,  and  draws  the  wrong  conclusions  from  the  struc-
ture  of  the  Vaccine  Act  and  the  broader  federal  scheme 
regulating vaccines. 

A 
As  a  textual  matter,  the  majority’s  interpretation  of
§22(b)(1)  is  fundamentally  flawed  in  three  central  re-
spects.  First, the majority’s categorical reading rests on a
faulty  and  untenable  premise.    Second,  its  reading  func-
tionally excises 13 words from the statutory text, including
the  key  term  “unavoidable.”  And  third,  the  majority  en-
tirely  ignores  the  Vaccine  Act’s  default  rule  preserving
state tort law. 

To  begin,  the  majority  states  that  “[a]  side  effect  of  a 
vaccine  could  always  have  been  avoidable  by  use  of  a
differently  designed  vaccine  not  containing  the  harmful
element.”  Ante,  at  7.  From  that  premise,  the  majority
concludes  that  the  statute  must  mean  that  “the  design  of 
the  vaccine  is  a  given,  not  subject  to  question  in  the  tort 
action,”  because  construing  the  statute  otherwise  would