Who's Going to Sue Banzhaf?

Responding to a USA Today editorial questioning the obesity lawsuits he champions, John Banzhaf continues to mislead the public about the track record of such litigation. "Five fat lawsuits already have been successful," he writes, predicting that "lawyers will continue to litigate against [obesity]--and probably continue to win."

In fact, as I pointed out in the August/September issue of Reason, lawyers have not won a single case in which they accused restaurants or food manufacturers of making people fat. None of the five "successful" suits to which Banzhaf alludes involved such a claim, and none of them resulted in an award of damages. The biggest quasi-victory was the $10 million settlement of a suit that faulted McDonald's for advertising that its French fries were cooked in vegetable oil while failing to mention that they were precooked in beef fat. The plaintiffs included Hindus and vegetarians. Describing this as a "fat lawsuit" is far more misleading than anything cited by the New York teenagers who blame McDonald's for their obesity.

[Thanks to Linda Stewart for the link.]