A lawsuit by the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce challenging federal government drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act should be allowed to continue, attorneys argued Wednesday before a federal appellate panel in Cincinnati.
A District Court judge dismissed the chamber’s lawsuit last year and the organization appealed to the 6th U.S. District Court of Appeals.
A central dispute in the case is whether the chamber of commerce has legal standing to challenge the price controls. Attorneys and judges Wednesday acknowledged that there is no previous ruling that perfectly matches this case although there are some that are similar.
A key legal issue is whether the subject matter of the lawsuit is germane to the purposes of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to challenge the constitutionality of government price controls,” Jeffrey Bucholtz, attorney for the chamber, told the panel of three federal appellate judges Wednesday. “There is nothing more natural than a chamber of commerce challenging government price controls.”
When asked for a previous case that specifically involved a local chamber of commerce challenging a national federal program, Bucholtz replied that he could not cite one.
But he argued that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of association.
“Yes, a chamber of commerce or any other sort of organization, whatever the organization might be, people have a First Amendment right to band together in an organization to advance their common interests,” the attorney said.
The Dayton chamber itself does not have to prove that its members were specifically injured by the price control, Bucholtz said, citing a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
“Instead, it’s to ensure that is sufficient adversarial vigor,” the Supreme Court ruled, Bucholtz told appellate judges Wednesday.
Maxwell Baldi, an attorney for the U.S. government, disagreed. He said the party suing to block a federal program must show a “concrete interest” in the issues involved in the litigation.
“I think by their theory they could challenge any economic regulation in the country as long as someone paid them membership dues,” Baldi said.
While the Dayton chamber is an organization to promote businesses in one local area, “This is a program to allow the government to address skyrocketing prescription drug prices, “ Baldi said.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, only 10 pharmaceutical companies were subject to the price controls, the attorney added.
Only one of those, a California company, is a member of the Dayton Area Chamber, Baldi said.
“They do nothing to explain how this company and vindicating its interest, would be tied to the Dayton business climate,” said Baldi.
There was no immediate ruling.
