The People Versus The Powerful

By Ilya Shapiro - August 9th, 2005 - Tech Central Station

On August 2, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington think tank advocating free markets and limited government, filed a constitutional challenge to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA, otherwise known as the Tobacco Settlement). The suit alleges that the agreement between 46 states and the four major tobacco companies is unconstitutional because it violates the Compact Clause of the Constitution: "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State." (Article I, Section 10)

Once again the courts are arrogantly indifferent to the Constitution and have sanctioned a clearly illegal lawsuit settlement in violation of almost every principle our nation is founded on. The settlement establishes an illegal cartel, without any legal justification, that damages the majority of Americans economically. Certain Americans are now having their businesses destroyed by state and local governments that benefit from the cartel. These are businesses that were never a party to the lawsuit, but who are blackmailed into participating in the settlement by tyrants that have to be called fascists. There is no other word to describe their behavior.

The attitude of our courts? The blackmail, extortion and illegal compact are okay with them. Who cares about the Constitution? Who cares about "the rule of law"? Our courts clearly do not care. This is called "the rule of judges".