On Wednesday, we discussed the relevant parts of pending tort reform legislation. Earlier in the month we updated our favorite federalist point, which is that federal courts should not issue expansive interpretations of state tort law when sitting in diversity jurisdiction.

OK, what do those two things have to do with one another.

Well, one of our fellow travelers on tort matters, Walter Olsen, has a thoughtful piece over at Cato on whether federalist principles limit the ability of congress to impose top-down tort reform on the states - although we hasten to point out that even a quasi-libertarian like him sees a role for federal tort reform in products liability and class actions.