The punishment continues

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 4, 2004]

Former Congressman Bob Barr again stands up for personal responsibility and choice. As the Justice Department continues to pursue lawsuits against tobacco companies, Barr reminds us of the dishonesty of using laws that were initially created to deal with racketeers. In his column, "Bad precedent on tobacco" (10/4/04), he claims that the latest lawsuit "is (a) legally laughable, and (b) a detrimental move that will have serious repercussions down the road." He expresses hope that the litigation's legal defects will doom it to failure -- before it can become public policy, and explains:

Why do I feel this way? Simple. I happen to think people are personally responsible for their actions. I believe individuals should be given choices, be allowed to make those choices and have to live with their consequences.

From a legal standpoint, the notion of applying racketeering statutes to overzealous marketing executives is a perversion of the law. The statutes' goal when written was prosecuting organized crime. This means the Justice Department essentially is taking a law meant to apply to John Gotti and trying to use it to bankrupt a lawful industry that has become politically incorrect.

They could as easily use it to torment the used car industry for misrepresenting the reliability of automobiles. The idea that tobacco firms are on a par with the mob may please some antismoking lobbyists, but no one in real America seems to buy it.

Furthermore, anyone who thinks cigarette-makers haven't been punished enough for their actions clearly has been living under a rock for the last decade. Tobacco companies have been systematically squeezed by governors, attorneys general, senators, big city mayors, and county commissioners and trial lawyers. Smokers now pay significantly more for cigarettes to compensate for the costs of this litigation.

In essence, the increase in cigarette prices is a new tax enacted through the courts without a single elected representative ever having the opportunity to vote on it. Where are the "taxation without representation" opponents in this battle?

Barr fears that if such lawsuits are allowed to continue and the tobacco industry is finally bankrupted, "we will have discarded separation of powers, and violated the fundamental belief in the capacity of individuals to make their own decisions that our Constitution was crafted to protect."

Claiming that politicians seek to gain from the millions of dollars that might be collected at the lawsuit's conclusion, Barr observes that "These new funds could then be used to buy votes with new programs, to say nothing of the benefits of bashing a publicly despised industry." He concludes, "We can only hope our legal system sees this lawsuit for what it is, since our political system has thus far failed to do so."

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