Judge Won’t Release Tobacco Documents

A Kansas state court judge refused to allow the immediate release of more than 2,418 internal tobacco industry documents that cigarette companies are strenuously battling to keep secret, rebuffing a request from plaintiff’s lawyers. Circuit Court Judge Fred Jackson granted the industry a stay, pending appeal, even though he rejected arguments by cigarette company lawyers that he reverse an earlier ruling that they must relinquish the documents. The papers have been the subject of fierce legal battles nationwide since late March, when Liggett Group Inc., a unit of Miami-based Brooke Group Ltd., provided documents to courts in 22 states that had sued the tobacco industry. . . . Separately, Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced comprehensive legislation that would increase the price of the tobacco settlement between the industry and state attorneys general to $397.3 billion from $368.5 billion. The Utah Republican’s measure would strengthen the government’s ability to regulate nicotine by creating new regulations under which tobacco products and nicotine would be monitored by the Food and Drug Administration. It would also boost the penalty tobacco companies would pay if teenage smoking fails to decline. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission issued an evaluation of its earlier report on the tobacco settlement and said it stands by its conclusion that the pact would mean higher profits for cigarette makers. The industry had criticized the report as inaccurate.