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• Canada Petitions U.S. Supreme Court for Tobacco Damages 

In The Attorney General of Canada v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, et al., No. 01-1317, Canada seeks $2 billion in lost taxes and law enforcement costs, and is suing under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows private parties to recover triple damages from criminal enterprises. The case is one of many the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider at its private conferences on May 9 and May 16 for possible review next term. . .

The District Court dismissed Canada's claim, writing that it represented "precisely the type of meddling in foreign affairs that the revenue rule forbids." . .

Judge Michael Kaplan, sitting by designation from the Western District of New York, dissented. He called the tax-gathering implications for Canada "incidental" to satisfying the RICO claim.

In briefs arguing that the Court should not take the case, the tobacco company contends that Congress never meant RICO to trump the revenue rule. Canada's theory "would allow any country, whether friend or foe, to avoid the trouble of negotiating a reciprocal tax-collection treaty with our government simply by invoking RICO in American courts," writes RJR lawyer Jeffrey Sutton, a partner at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Columbus, Ohio, who has been nominated by the President George W. Bush for a spot on the 6th Circuit.

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