New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | October 21, 2005

Jacob Sullum notes the irony of using anti-mob legislation to shake down tobacco companies.

Comments

Ed|10.21.05 @ 9:53AM|#

I have a feeling this particular irony is lost on the shakedown artists. The targets of irony and satire are always the last to get the joke.

|10.21.05 @ 9:57AM|#

Has RICO ever been used to target the mob, as opposed to politically unpopular groups? During the Clinton administration, the DOJ was quite fond of the statute as a club to bludgeon pro-life groups with.

|10.21.05 @ 11:35AM|#

The more power the federal government accumulates, the more it seems to resemble some kind of weird Harvard/Yale-educated form of the Mob.

RICO was definitely used to target the Mafia back when it was first enacted--and back when the Mafia had real power. Problem is, the statute seems rather vague and open-ended, which has permitted it to be used in ways its drafters certainly did not intend.

|10.21.05 @ 12:02PM|#

Governement doesn't "resemble" organized crime. It IS organized crime.
This has been one of their more clever schemes...they've managed to take the lion's share of tobacco profits while still being able to put the blame on "evil tobacco companies".

Mike Laursen|10.21.05 @ 12:14PM|#

Wasn't Geo. Washington one of these tobacco pushers? Shoudl we call him the "Godfather of our Country"?

|10.21.05 @ 4:21PM|#

This is nothing more than legalised government extortion. The good news is the courts got it right this time. They clearly got it wrong when the states extorted hundreds of billions out of tobacco.

I'm not a smoker but I feel sorry for smokers who have to pay $3 a pack to line the pockets of extortionist government when they could be paying 50 cents.

|10.22.05 @ 4:33PM|#

RA where does a pack of cigarettes cost 3 dollars? Everywhere I've been its way more.

|10.23.05 @ 10:20PM|#

Yeah, RA. I am sure those of us here in Chicago who smoke will be HAPPY to pay only $3 for smokes, because they're more like $6 here.