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Human experimentation rules

Norman Carl Rabin v. Department of Health and Human Services

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Dismissed

Petition denied.

What it’s about
Norman Carl Rabin and the other petitioners ask the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s refusal to reinstate their appeal challenging federal rules for human experiments.
Who it affects
Rabin and the other petitioners did not get Supreme Court review of the appeals court’s decision, and the Supreme Court did not decide their claims.

Summary: written with AI from the case record.

Illustration for Norman Carl Rabin, et al., Petitioners v. Department of Health and Human Services, et al.
Conceptual illustration · AI-generated

What it's about

They argue the appeals court issued its mandate before its own deadline and demanded too much proof without first letting them gather evidence, including for their claim that the rulemaking violated procedural rights.

Rabin and the other petitioners challenge federal rules for human experiments and say the Second Circuit should have reinstated their appeal.

Question presented

1. Whether a Federal Court of Appeals departs from the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings by denying a motion to reinstate a plausibly meritorious appeal involving constitutional challenges to federal human-experimentation rules, and where the Court issued its mandate prior to the expiration of the filing deadline set by its own Local Rules? 2. Whether not reinstating this type of appeal also creates a ‘ Manifest Injustice ’ — as defined by the Court ’ s own precedents in Lattanzio v. COMT A, 481 F.3d 137 (2d Cir. 2007) and grounded upon the 1967 enactment notes to FRAP Rule 2? 3. Whether the standard of ‘ Proof absent jurisdictional discovery as applied to Plaintiffs-Appellants, in the U.S. District Court (in the context of legal standing), but also in the federal Appellate Court (concerning making a showing of Extraordinary Circumstances), is unjust or inappropriately too high, for this particular case, which is a non-monetary federal rulemaking case, challenging the Revised Common Rule rulemaking ’ s failure to enact more protective federal rules to protect citizens from non-consensual human experimentation, and also where Petitioners ’ “ Claim 1 ” involves a violation of procedural rights by the rulemaking?

Documents

1

Docket activity

7
  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • AI analysis generated: Decision Record

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

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  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Brief added: Petition

    Jun 29, 2026 · Court records

Sources

Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings

Reporting and analysis