September 06, 2006

Michael Siegel, whose blog on tobacco policy issues really should be better known, has published a three-part discussion of Judge Kessler's ruling last month in the Department of Justice lawsuit against tobacco companies. Part Three notes that despite the endless, breathless media accounts about how a soft-on-business DOJ faction had supposedly taken a dive in the litigation by dropping demands for huge monetary damages, the ruling confirmed that appellate-court guidance had already ruled a gigantic-damages option off the table; the department was just acknowledging this reality, as good lawyers would.