On Thursday, the Sixth Circuit rejected the efforts by the Ohio attorney general and drug companies to impede an upcoming opioid trial accusing drugmakers of fueling the opioid crisis.
The panel, along with rejecting the state’s arguments that the counties involved usurped its parent of the nation authority, also rejected the drugmakers' bid to disqualify the judge overseeing the trial.
Attorney General Dave Yost argued through an August 30 petition that the lawsuits filed by the counties threatened the state’s authority to protect the public welfare. The panel ruled, stating that the state hadn’t met, the high bar required for obtaining a writ of mandamus, also Yost did not show how the state would have been harmed by the lawsuits brought by Summit County and Cuyahoga County.
Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, had opposed the attorney general’s bid stating that he would refuse any legislation that gives the attorney general control over the counties’ suit as the local governments have shown a significant impact of the opioid epidemic.
