Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2007-06-11
Author: Mark H. Anderson
Intro: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Philip Morris Cos. in its bid to move an Arkansas class-action lawsuit over the marketing of light cigarettes from state to federal court.
The opinion overturns a lower court ruling that had sided with the tobacco giant. The lawsuit, which has not yet been to trial, will now go back to lower courts and will likely be heard by a state court.
Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc., has been trying to get the case moved out of the Arkansas courts. Corporations prefer the uniform and sometimes tougher standards that product-liability cases face in a federal court, prompting efforts in both the courts and legislatures to force more cases out of state court systems.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the unanimous opinion that rejected arguments from Philip Morris that the Federal Trade Commission's detailed regulation of light cigarette monitoring required the case to be heard by a federal court. "Neither language, no history, nor purpose lead us to believe that Congress intended any such expansion," Justice Breyer wrote.
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