The federal judiciary missed its chance to start reforming the asbestos bankruptcy blob last week, and it's the court system itself that will be worse off for it.

Federal Judge John Fullam was recently asked by a group of commercial creditors in the giant Owens Corning asbestos bankruptcy to order up a study of the X-rays of plaintiffs who'd submitted claims to the company. The request came on the heels of mounting evidence that most asbestos claims don't satisfy minimum medical requirements, and it created a singular chance for a judge to explore the heart of the asbestos scam and set a precedent for future cases.

Instead, Judge Fullam last week issued a cursory order denying the request on the bizarre grounds that we already know there's rampant asbestos fraud. He noted there was "substantial evidence" that Owens Corning had dealt with "large numbers of claimants who actually sustained little or no harm from their exposure to Owens Corning's products," and that "no useful purpose would be served" to "prove what is already reasonably well known."

The problem here is that believing isn't seeing. Journalists have revealed how tort lawyers cajole healthy people into filing claims, and academics have used available (if limited) health files to suggest that up to 95% of claims are bogus. But trial lawyers know that this anecdotal or incomplete data count for nothing in a specific court case, an argument Judge Fullam has allowed them to keep making by refusing to order up for examination the pertinent evidence (lung X-rays) in the Owens Corning case.

On the logic of Judge Fullam's own ruling, he should now dismiss the majority of claims this January when he rules on what Owens Corning's ultimate "liabilities" are to tort plaintiffs. More likely, however, he will not rise to the day, and instead will let this judicial scandal continue, with even more damage to the economy, to truly sick claimants who aren't getting compensated, and to the judiciary itself.