Jump to full article: Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, 2010-06-29
Author: DAVID RESS AND JOHN REID BLACKWELL * TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
Intro: The ruling yesterday means a lower court can order Big Tobacco to take steps -- such as not labeling cigarettes as light or low tar -- already required by last year's law that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products. . . .
"It is now established, and will not be overturned, that the major tobacco companies have been adjudicated to be racketeers," said Edward L. Sweda, a tobacco-control activist and senior attorney for the Tobacco Control Resource Center at Northeastern University.
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids said it was disappointed that the Supreme Court won't consider whether to reinstate the $280 billion in penalties, along with demands that tobacco companies pay for programs to teach people about the risks of tobacco and to help them quit smoking.
But, it added, "Today's decision upholds the trial court's historic verdict that the cigarette manufacturers are racketeers and have engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to deceive the American public and target children with their deadly and addictive products." . . .
Tobacco companies argued that it was wrong to apply racketeering law to a group of companies that compete with one another, and that many of the actions called racketeering were expressions of opinion about what was for many years a matter of heated public debate -- the degree of harm from smoking and second-hand smoke.
Garnick said he believes Kessler's racketeering finding is unlikely to affect individuals' lawsuits against tobacco companies.
He said juries and judges in several states had rejected many of the arguments the Justice Department made in its case.
The case now returns to the U.S. District Court in Washington, which is considering how to mesh its ordered remedies with last year's FDA tobacco law.
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