Judge throws out animal rights lawsuit against UCSF

SAN FRANCISCO - A lawsuit by animal-rights advocates accusing UCSF of illegally spending state money on painful and unnecessary experiments on dogs and monkeys was dismissed Tuesday by a San Francisco judge, who said Congress has designated federal regulators, not the courts, to oversee the research.

"You want to have the court become the regulator of this particular lab," Superior Court Judge Patrick Mahoney told a lawyer for six health professionals who filed the taxpayer suit against the university. "I don't think that's what Congress intended."

The plaintiffs wanted Mahoney to halt what they called illegal experiments and appoint a monitor to oversee compliance with the federal Animal Welfare Act, which requires humane treatment of research animals. Daniel Kinburn, the attorney for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said he would appeal the dismissal.

The suit cited findings by U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors that UCSF had violated Animal Welfare Act standards. After inspectors alleged that the university had committed 75 violations from May 2001 to December 2003, including 15 instances of failing to meet minimum standards for humane treatment, UCSF paid $92,500 in a September 2005 settlement, the suit said.

The judge is frickin nuts. We don’t subcontract out the law to private appointees (unaccountable appointees) - this is exactly why the courts exist. Congress makes the laws, courts interpret. This guy is trying to make a private appointed body the sole arbitor of whether another private organization is in compliance with the law.

Who the frick then is the check and balance on the appointed body? The judge believes the courts are not. Then nobody is. That is not friggin right.

This is a fundamental problem with our government. Our elected officials (many judges are directly elected or appointed by elected reps) ‘subcontract’ out their responsibilities to unelected, unaccountable people.

Congress has the power to coin money. They subcontract it out to the Federal Reserve with fiat notes. All the Fed Reserve board members are appointed from private banks, and we can’t get rid of any of them or change them if we want to.

They set up these ‘blue ribbon panels’ to come up with the suggestions they are too afraid to make on their own, and say they’re doing what the ‘experts’ recommend. Friggin unaccountable, unelected panels of God knows who making policy and laws that your congressman can say “Hey, I didn’t write it.” Built in deniability for your congresscritter.

How many times do our own congresspeople say they can’t do anything to help when unelected, unaccountable govt workers run roughshod over citizens (the IRS, the BATF, etc)? They wash their hands of anything.

I’m not saying this particular case had any merit, but for the judge to give this reason is just forkin’ wrong. Appointed boards are not untouchable entities, they are not judges, they are not courts. Courts need to be the place laws are interpreted, and where right and wrong are decided. Not some group of private, untouchable people who may or may not have conflicts of interests in (hello FDA folks and drug companies????). Where is their check and balance? None exists.

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