The main reason the tobacco companies so badly want Congress to approve the $368 billion deal they cut last year with the states is that it offers them immunity against future lawsuits. And the main reason they want immunity is to save money. But they also want to save face. In every tobacco lawsuit, plaintiffs can demand and make public the industry's internal documents, even as a condition of cases settled out of court. Just how damaging those disclosures can be is plainer than ever since last week, when a California suit opened a flood of secret industry papers. What many...
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