The Competitive Enterprise Institute is launching a legal action challenging it as unconstitutional, and also has put up a website on attorney general activism which assails the “Government-Tobacco Cartel” established by the settlement. (Alan Sayre, “Lawsuit: Deal has created tobacco cartel”, AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, Aug. 3; press release/complaint in PDF format). We’ve been covering the story for years (see Feb. 15 and Jun. 3, 2005; Feb. 28 and May 11, 2004, etc., as well as Chapter 1 (“The Joy of Tobacco Fees”) of The Rule of Lawyers). More: and here’s a column by Jonathan Rauch (“Can A Little Lawsuit Shut Down A Big Tobacco Racket?”, National Journal, Aug. 5, will rotate off soon), on which Eugene Volokh’s readers comment.

Filed under: attorneys general, tobacco settlement