Tobacco.org

• U.S. wants ruling upheld against cigarette-makers 

The U.S. government asked yesterday that a federal appeals court uphold a ruling that Philip Morris USA and other U.S. cigarette-makers violated anti-racketeering laws by marketing low-tar cigarettes as healthier alternatives to full-flavored brands.

Gladys Kessler, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, issued her 1,653-page decision in August 2006. The manufacturers won a de­lay of the ruling while they appeal.

“The district court’s opinion re­veals a decades-long coordinated campaign to deceive American consumers about the toxicity and addictiveness of cigarettes,” the government said in a brief filed with the U.S. appeals court in Washington.

The government argued that Kessler did not abuse her discretion when she ordered the cigarette-mak­ers to stop labeling products “light” or “low-tar.”

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