Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America v. State

Because I would conclude that even under a rational basis standard of review the statute fails a Uniformity Clause challenge, I respectfully dissent.

I

In my view, the Act must be viewed in light of the litigation that gave rise to it. The state’s 1994 lawsuit against the major cigarette manufacturers and their trade associations traces its origins to the formation of the Tobacco Institute and the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, later renamed the Council for Tobacco Research. In its 1994 lawsuit, the state alleged that, by forming these trade associations, the tobacco industry “undertook a…