The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Illinois smokers who sought reinstatement of a $10.1 billion class action judgment in a long-running lawsuit against Henrico County-based Philip Morris USA.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place an Illinois Supreme Court ruling in favor of the cigarette maker. The smokers had objected to the participation of state Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier, who they said benefited from tobacco money in his retention election.
“It does look like the end of a very long saga,” said Ed Sweda, a tobacco control advocate and senior attorney for the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston.
