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U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Tobacco Case: Allows Lower Courts’ Findings of Racketeering and Fraud by the Tobacco Industry to Stand

6/28/2010

Statement by Legacy President and CEO, Dr. Cheryl Healton

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will not review a May 2009 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a lower court’s finding that  tobacco companies deceived the American public and in doing so, engaged in racketeering and fraud.  The court’s decision leaves in place an August 2006 opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler’s opinion concluding that:

“[O]ver the course of more than 50 years, Defendants lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public, including smokers and the young people they avidly sought as ‘replacement smokers,’ about the devastating health effects of smoking and environmental tobacco smoke, they suppressed research, they destroyed documents, they manipulated the use of nicotine so as to increase and perpetuate addiction, they distorted the truth about low tar and light cigarettes, so as to discourage smokers from quitting, and they abused the legal system in order to achieve their goal – to make money with little, if any, regard for individual illness and suffering, soaring health costs, or the integrity of the legal system.” 

Legacy is, however, disappointed that the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case means that the industry will not be forced, as it rightly deserves, to pay billions of dollars in monetary penalties given its decades of perpetrating deadly fraud on the American people.

Legacy is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the national public health organization helps American live longer, healthier lives. Legacy develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth^®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as having contributed to significant declines in youth smoking; EX^®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; and research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.legacyforhealth.org/.

Legacy is equipped with a VideoLink ReadyCam™ television studio system, providing journalists with faster, easier access to the nation’s leading tobacco prevention and cessation experts. From this in-house broadcast studio, Legacy can offer immediate access to its experts to comment on breaking news, new research publications, or any news related to youth smoking prevention, adult quit smoking programs, or any issue related to smoking. The studio is connected directly to the Vyvx fiber network and is always available for live or pre-taped interviews. To arrange an interview, please contact Julia Cartwright at 202-454-5596.

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Contact: Julia Cartwright, 202-454-5596, jcartwright@legacyforhealth.org