Overall, it strengthens free speech protections for all advertising and shows how skeptical the court is of laws designed to keep consumers in the dark about information related to vices like gambling and drinking. The Florida tobacco case this week seems to illustrate the arbitrariness of the justice system. That's a good point, and I've heard lots of similar complaints. The Florida case is unique particularly because it went forward as a class-action lawsuit. Many other judges in other states have said the group of people complaining about smoking-related injuries is too diverse to be a single class.
State laws differ in many other ways, too.
For example, one of the other recent smoking cases was from Tennessee, which has a law that says if a plaintiff is partly responsible for his injuries, he can't win any money damages. So a Memphis jury that found that a man with lung cancer was 50 percent responsible for his illnesses, at the same time that the cigarette company also caused his injuries, couldn't award him any money for his health injuries. Thursday's execution in Florida led to the killer bleeding all over himself. That was a gruesome case. But, as much as it outraged death penalty critics, I don't expect it to necessarily produce more opponents of capital punishment.