Some thoughts about the Civil Liability provisions of the McCain committee bill 1. The bill is explicitly preemptive. It preempts all state-law causes of action, substituting instead a single federal claim.
Federal courts are generally more hostile to tobacco claims than state courts.
Despite the fact that these conglomerates purchased their other assets - Kraft, Nabisco, Philip Morris' international operations, etc. The bill also removes from the table the assets of other appropriate contributors to the industry's debt to its victims, such as co-conspiring law firms. If this was supposed to be measured by the industry's ability to pay, there is no reason why it should not be required to put the unused caps into a reserve. The industry has done nothing to earn these unique benefits.