Jump to full article: Center for Corporate Policy, 2008-03-01
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Intro: The Washington Legal Foundation is a national non-profit legal foundation based in Washington, DC. The group not only litigates but does extensive communications and public relations work. . . .
"I like to think of us as a small business version of the American Civil Liberties Union," WLF Chairman Dan Popeo told one reporter. "Only our stress is on economic civil liberties."
But public interest advocates who have opposed WLF say they are one of many mouthpieces that work to "legitimize predatory, rogue industries" like Big Tobacco. (Internal Philip Morris documents describe WLF as "A close ally...for many years." WLF has issued legal backgrounders such as this one suggesting that government efforts to educate the public on the hazards of smoking were tantamount to communism. Daniel Troy, the Bush administration's FDA counsel, has written Legal Backgrounders for WLF like this one claiming that ordinances enacted in New York, Baltimore and Cincinnati to restrict tobacco and/or alcohol advertisements are unconstitutional. (In 1994 the WLF issued another legal backgrounder that argues that there is no need for additional federal tobacco regulations, and that public health advocates are neo-prohibitionists.)
A cursory glance at WLF's website reveals that while its immediate clients may be small businesses or individuals, the interests served by WLF are clearly large corporations and the legal horsepower behind the group their partners at the large corporate law firms.
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