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Company Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Connecticut Attorney General's Appeal

NEW YORK, June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- In the latest in a series of state and federal court rulings favorable to the tobacco industry, the United States Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari of the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal. He had sought Supreme Court review of a unanimous decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in September 1997. That decision upheld Philip Morris's right to have its federal constitutional claims decided in federal court.

The companies maintain that the Attorney General's lawsuit violates their rights under the Due Process, Equal Protection, Commerce, Supremacy and Takings Clauses, as well as the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The Attorney General's suit violates not only federal law but also common sense. Both federal and Connecticut law sanction the sale of tobacco products to adults. The state makes cigarettes available for purchase in state facilities, and it has collected at least two billion dollars in cigarette taxes since it began participating in Medicaid. These contradictions highlight the hypocrisy of Connecticut's lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

SOURCE: Philip Morris Management Corp.