A couple of posts about regulation over at Point of Law:

One comments on Sen. Chambliss’ hold on Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House, which is not a good idea. The folks at OMB Watch seem to agree (and how often does that happen)?

The other notes an aggressive will to power by at least one new appointee at the Federal Trade Commission. Yes, the guy used to sue for Public Citizen is now running the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Oh boy.

We’ve been watching the hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on H.R. 1346, the Medical Device Safety Act.

The first witness was David Vladeck, listed and introduced as J.D, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. He testified, vehemently, against federal preemption, criticizing the Supreme Court ruling in Riegel v. Medtronic.

Vladeck’s views don’t surprise us; he’s a hard-core advocate of expanded regulation, regards business as nemesis, and made a career out of suing people. Before coming to Georgetown, he was with Public Citizen Litigation Group for decades.

Thing is, Vladeck was announced on April 14 as the new director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Federal Trade Commission. (FTC news release, Washington Post article.)

Even if he hasn’t started work at the FTC yet [see UPDATE below], do we really want our regulators — and the FTC is a regulatory agency — commenting on policy matters? You have a regulator declaring he holds little respect for the Supreme Court’s opinion on preemption and that members of Congress who believe in FDA preemption are wrong and ill-informed. That’s an improper role for a regulator.

In addition, the FTC has a large regulatory portfolio involving health care competition. While not the regulatory agency in charge of medical devices, the FTC has dealt with the industry. Won’t Vladeck’s appearance and testimony give people in the health care industry grounds to suspect they won’t get a fair shake?

All in all, a strange and imprudent appearance before the committee.

UPDATE: According to the Federal Leadership Directory (the Yellow Book):

The head of the Federal Trade Commission has announced new senior positions in the FTC, including a top post for a former top lawyer with the anti-business Naderite group, Public Citizen, who then migrated to the legal professoriat at Georgetown Law. No practical experience in business? Become a business regulator!

From the FTC, a news release, “FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz Appoints Senior Staff“:

David C. Vladeck, who will serve as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, has been a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching federal courts, government processes, civil procedure, and First Amendment litigation. He co-directed the Center’s Institute for Public Representation, a clinical law program for civil rights, civil liberties, First Amendment, open government, and regulatory litigation. Vladeck previously spent almost 30 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, including 10 years as Director. He has argued a number of First Amendment and civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and more than 60 cases before the federal courts of appeal and state courts of last resort.

From the Public Citizen blog, Consumer Law and Public Policy:

Needless to say, we think this is really terrific news. David is a tenacious advocate for consumers and is taking up this important post at a time when strong leadership and enforcement on consumer protection issues is sorely needed. Congratulations to David!  The full announcement–listing the other five appointees, including the heads of the agency’s antitrust, economics, and policy planning divisions–is posted after the jump.

From the US PIRG Consumer Blog, “Vladeck to FTC, great choice.”

Great news. New FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz has selected constitutional scholar and consumer advocate David Vladeck to head the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. David’s been teaching at Georgetown Law for a while and before that was a longtime public interest attorney at Public Citizen. This is great news for consumers who want a fair marketplace and bad news for corporate criminals and those who support lax enforcement of the consumer laws. I will do a longer blog from a real computer. — From the Blackberry, in Baltimore.

From AdAge, “FTC Names Consumer Advocate to Lead Consumer Protection Bureau“:

“We expect Mr. Vladeck will vigorously pursue, with Chairman Leibowitz’s support, a serious consumer-protection agenda,” Jeff Chester, executive director of the advocacy group Center for Digital Democracy, said in an e-mail and blog post. He cited financial products, privacy, online advertising, and food marketing to children and adolescents as areas that “will now get the intellectual and strategic attention they deserve” at the FTC.

Unfortunately, the various “consumer groups” make no distinction between a “consumer protection” agenda and a “business is nefarious” and “let’s raise costs to the consumers” agenda.

The Center for Progressive Reform has the fullest biography we’ve seen of Professor Vladeck, “one the nation’s foremost public interest litigators.”