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Perry has been vague about exactly what kind of tort reform he’d like to see on the federal level, and said he wouldn’t want to impinge on states’ rights. Trial lawyers aren’t so sure that Perry would hold back if given the opportunity to attack their profession on a grand scale.

With a few exceptions, plaintiff's lawyers are scum, but if Rick Perry pushes for tort reform at the federal level (which the article hints at as a possibility), that would make Perry pretty scummy as well. There's no constitutional basis for the federal government enacting tort reform that would cover state courts. If we're talking about tort reform in federal courts then there's no constitutional impediment, but federal courts are already far less friendly to state courts.

I strongly admire what he did in Texas when it comes to tort reform. I wish New York had similar reforms. That said, he'd better not try to push similar reform on all state courts through Congress. He seems to me to be pretty strong on states rights and the Tenth Amendment, so I do hope the article is incorrect when it alludes to the possibility of Perry trying to implement federal tort reform.

I remember when President Bush stepped on the Tenth Amendment in 2004. I'm one of the biggest supporters of gun rights that you'll find, but President Bush signed a bill that gave firearm manufacturers and dealers immunity from federal lawsuits. It was completely unconstitutional and stripped states of the rights to govern their own court systems. The NRA, of which I am a member, pushed it because they care more about protecting gun manufacturers/dealers than they do about respecting our constitutional system of government. One of the key tents of our federalist system is that matters like this are left to the states. Texas has done a good job implementing tort reform. New York has not. New York loses jobs to Texas because of that fact, and that is a good thing, because the states should compete against each other. What made Bush's decision even worse is that 33 of the 50 states already had laws on the books similar to the one he signed, so he basically signed the federal legislation to force the remaining 17 states into being like those 33.

I apologize for belaboring the point, but I really hate when Republicans (the party that claims to support and respect the constitution, because we know that the Democrats definitely don't) treat it like toilet paper. I would hope that Rick Perry would not sign a similar law. I have no objection to tort reform, but the tort reform for state courts needs to take place at the STATE LEVEL only.