Appeals Court Upholds Tobacco Racketeering Rulings
On Friday the American tobacco industry suffered a huge blow, as the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld earlier rulings that the industry violated federal racketeering laws in a decades-long scheme to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.
The court affirmed most remedies that a trial judge imposed against tobacco companies in 2006, which included restrictions on tobacco marketing and a requirement that the industry make corrective public statements about the health effects and addictiveness of smoking.
The appeals court, however, rejected the government’s request for additional penalties against cigarette makers. Among other things, the government and anti-smoking groups wanted to force the tobacco industry to fund a $10 billion national smoking-cessation campaign.
The appeals court also affirmed an earlier ruling that the government couldn’t force the tobacco companies to forfeit up to $280 billion in profits.
In a unanimous 92-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said there was ample evidence to conclude that the tobacco industry intended to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.
The court said the tobacco companies “knew about the negative health consequences of smoking, the addictiveness and manipulation of nicotine, the harmfulness of secondhand smoke, and the concept of smoker compensation, which makes light cigarettes no less harmful than regular cigarettes and possibly more.”
The court also said the government had adequately proven that the tobacco industry was likely to commit future racketeering violations unless restrictions were imposed.
Frank says: