May the federal government, under the Federal Tort Claims Act, assert a defense to a medical malpractice case because its volunteer physicians would be able to assert a Volunteer Protection Act defense in the lawsuit? Section 2674 of the FTCA permits the government to assert any defense based upon judicial or legislative immunity which otherwise would have been available to the employee whose act or omissions gave rise to the claim. The claim was brought by the estate of a person who died after treatment by volunteer physicians at a nonprofit clinic in New Jersey. Although the physicians were volunteers, the Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act of 1982 “operates to create the...