The issue focused on possible economic problems that some companies were facing.

"We can't just tell them to make it right and get out of the business," said Justice David O'Neill, who heard two legal challenges by medical device manufacturers. "This has been a political issue for years. It's about issues of fair trade, rights of workers, financial justice, civil rights. We need to know what is at stake."

In court papers filed with the federal courts in March, lawyers for industrial