Scientist Subpoenaed Too

There is an old saying in legal circles that if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if neither is on your side, pound the table.  Clifford Shoemaker, with neither the facts nor the law on his side, prefers to pound the table. Or more accurately, to pound his opponents with frivolous intimidatory subpoenas.

As I wrote two weeks ago in Bullying Attorney Thug, Clifford Shoemaker is the ambulance chasing attorney who makes his living filing claims in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). Unable to cope with honest criticism of his methods, and with few facts on his side, he issued a massively invasive and irrelevant subpoena to blogger Kathleen Seidel. Kathleen now reports that scientist Marie McCormick received a similar subpoena at the same time. As with Seidel, McCormick has also filed a motion to quash.

You may remember Dr. McCormick from Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s dishonest article about thimerosal and autism of nearly three years ago. McCormick was one of the scientists whom Kennedy quote mined to make them appear to be saying the opposite of what they actually said. Three years later, little has changed. The opponents of vaccines, still lacking actual evidence to support their case, still resort to dishonest methods to push their agenda. All proponents of free speech should hope that both these ludicrous subpoenas will be quashed. If they are not, I would imagine that independent scientists would in future be less willing to serve on committees the way McCormick and others have done.

Comments

[DV82XL]

Barratry, in criminal and civil law practice of bringing legal actions solely to harass. The actions brought usually lack merit. This action used to be a crime in some jurisdictions but it has gone off the books over the years.

Perhaps it is time to bring it back.

[Joseph]

Your 2005 debunking of the Simpsonwood quote-mining was top-notch. No doubt Shoemaker is hoping to get a hold of some more documentation he can similarly quote-mine.