The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has just released its long-awaited en banc decision in Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach. As anticipated, the Court held 8-2, against the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs. The majority opinion, written by Judge Griffith, begins:

This case presents the question whether the Constitution provides terminally ill patients a right of access to experimental drugs that have passed limited safety trials but have not been proven safe and effective. The district court held there is no such right. A divided panel of this Court held there is. Because we conclude that there is no fundamental right "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition" of access to experimental drugs for the terminally ill . . . we affirm the judgment of the district court.

Judge Rogers, joined by Chief Judge Ginsburg, dissented.

For some earlier posts on this case see here. More to follow.

UPDATE: For more past blogging on the case, see Randy Barnett's posts here and this post from Glenn Cohen (who worked on the case) from Prawfsblawg.