BIG TOBACCO CLAIMS 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO LIE, DECEIVE AND KILL

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1. BIG TOBACCO CLAIMS 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO LIE, DECEIVE AND KILL

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/national/18TOBA.html?ex=1049018807 & ei=1 & en=49e\

94ba9c9f06c97

" The Justice Department is demanding that the nation's biggest

cigarette makers be ordered to forfeit $289 billion in profits

derived from a half-century of fraudulent' and dangerous marketing

practices. Citing new evidence, the Justice Department asserts ...

the major cigarette companies are running what amounts to a

criminal enterprise by manipulating nicotine levels, lying to their

customers about the dangers of tobacco and directing their

multibillion-dollar advertising campaigns at children. ... The

tobacco industry said the charges were without merit, asserting in

new filings of its own that its public pronouncements about

cigarettes were free speech protected by the First Amendment. ...

[Attorney General] Ashcroft, who opposed the lawsuit when he was in

the Senate, has demonstrated occasional resistance to it since

becoming attorney general in 2001. ... But with the Justice

Department's senior officials preoccupied with terrorism for the

last 18 months, Mr. Ashcroft let it go forward ... . "

SOURCE: New York Times, March 18, 2003

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