Jump to full article: Associated Press (AP), 2007-06-11
Intro: The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Philip Morris Cos. Inc. cannot move a lawsuit by cigarette smokers into federal court.
The unanimous decision came in a case that consumers filed against the cigarette company in state court in Arkansas.
The potential for large damage awards from state court juries makes the federal court system a more desirable place for tobacco companies and other defendants sued in class-action cases.
Philip Morris, a part of Altria Group Inc., moved the case to federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas, saying it could do so because the company was pervasively regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. . . .
At issue is an unusual use of a federal law on moving cases out of state courts. The law protects anyone acting under a federal officer from interference by hostile state courts.
"A highly regulated firm cannot find a statutory basis for removal" to a federal court "in the fact of regulation alone," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer. What the FTC is doing "sounds to us like regulation, not delegation."
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Quotes from this article:
A highly regulated firm cannot find a statutory basis for removal [to a federal court] in the fact of regulation alone. [What the FTC is doing] sounds to us like regulation, not delegation.
US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, in the SCOTUS opinion denying Philip Morris' attempt to move the Watson case to Federal Court.
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