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Philip Morris Loses U.S. High Court Case on Suit Site (Update2) 

The U.S. Supreme Court gave a boost to smoker lawsuits that claim tobacco companies deceptively marketed ``light'' cigarettes, ruling that Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA can't shift a case into federal court.

The justices unanimously said Arkansas state courts should handle the suit by smokers Lisa Watson and Loretta Lawson, not the federal tribunals that corporate defendants tend to prefer. Philip Morris argued that it could shift the case because the Federal Trade Commission closely supervised testing of the cigarettes.

``We can find nothing that warrants treating the FTC/Philip Morris relationship as distinct from the usual regulator/regulated relationship,'' Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court in Washington.

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We can find nothing that warrants treating the FTC/Philip Morris relationship as distinct from the usual regulator/regulated relationship.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, in the Watson decision.