The following published opinions were released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on April 24, 2008:

• Ackermann v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (Jones, C.J., Wiener, Clement, JJ.; opinion by Jones, C.J.). On summary judgment, district court dismissed plaintiff’s claim that pharmaceutical company’s failure to provide a warning of drug-induced increased suicide risk in conjunction with its product, Effexor, caused the suicide death of plaintiff’s husband. The Fifth Circuit affirmed, finding that the plaintiff failed to demonstrate causation under the learned intermediary doctrine. In affirming, the Fifth Circuit held that Texas’s “read-and-heed” presumption framework does not apply to pharmaceutical cases involving learned intermediaries.
• U.S. v. Rodriguez (Jones, C.J., Davis, Garza, JJ.; opinion by Davis, J.) (revision of opinion originally released April 1, 2008). Affirming sentence for defendant who pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry after deportation. The Fifth Circuit held that the district court did not commit plain error in treating the defendant’s prior conviction for cocaine distribution as a “drug trafficking offense” under the Sentencing Guidelines; that any sentencing disparity complained of by the defendant due to lesser sentences being levied in jurisdictions invoking the “fast track” program was due to Congressional policy and not Guidelines policy, such that the district court did not err in failing to follow Rita v. United States, 127 S. Ct. 2456 (2007), and Kimbrough v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 558 (2007); that the district court did not abuse its discretion in levying a Guidelines sentence, because the district court adequately manifested its consideration of the § 3553(a) factors; that the disparate sentencing treatment of aliens in fast-track jurisdictions versus those in non-fast-track jurisdictions does not involve a suspect classification; and that the non-application of fast-track procedures and reductions does not violate constitutional Equal Protection guarantees.