Melvin Watt: “I do not argue with the right of California to do tort reform or North Carolina or New York or any of the States. There…”

“I do not argue with the right of California to do tort reform or North Carolina or New York or any of the States. There are crises in some States, situations vary from State to State, and State legislators have the prerogative to set whatever tort laws they think are desirable. But I think it is the ultimate act of arrogance on our part as Members of Congress to think that we should dictate to the States in an area that has historically and forever been the prerogative of the State and in a way that I think substantially adversely impacts our whole Federal form of government, and in a way that runs contrary to just about everything my Republican colleagues say they stand for, which is devolving things back to the States. I talked to a doctor this morning and I said to him, I have never seen a malpractice take place across State lines. To the extent that you operate on a patient from North Carolina, you being a doctor in North Carolina and the patient is from South Carolina, that creates diversity of citizenship and gets you into the Federal court. I offered an amendment in the Committee on the Judiciary designed to restrict this legislation to suits that are brought properly in the Federal court.”