Illinois court throws out $10.1 billion tobacco judgment News
Illinois court throws out $10.1 billion tobacco judgment

[JURIST] The Illinois Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday reversed [opinion text] a $10.1 billion judgment against Philip Morris USA [corporate website] in a case where the tobacco company had been found liable for defrauding customers into believing that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones. The state high court ordered the lower court to dismiss the case, holding that the US Federal Trade Commission [official website] regulations gave tobacco companies authority to denominate products as "light" or "low tar and nicotine" and that under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, companies cannot be held liable for behavior that has been specifically permitted by a regulatory body. The case was heard on direct appeals from the trial court, bypassing the intermediate appellate court. Altria, Philip Morris' parent company, provides a summary of the case and a list of legal filings. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.