Bush Has Opportunity to Correct Government's Abuse of Litigation

By Thomas Donohue

February 2001

Our country's journey to freedom started with a cry of "no taxation without representation." If the founding fathers were alive today, they would have surely provoked another revolution with a cry of "no taxation through litigation."

Not long after Congress rejected President Clinton's 1998 request for a massive tax on smokers, the Clinton administration ordered the Justice Department to go after tobacco companies through taxpayer-supported lawsuits. The Bush Administration now has the chance to correct this unfairness and treat tobacco like other legal industries.

The former administration, however, once stymied by Congress, bypassed the legislative process by launching a massive legal assault against a legitimate but "politically incorrect" industry.

The Justice Department manipulated a number of statutes—including laws meant to be used against organized crime—and disregarded previous court rulings that significantly weakened its case.

This issue is not really about tobacco. It's about whether un-elected lawyers, armed with the awesome legal powers and resources of the state, should be allowed to use lawsuits to fill government coffers and force policies on the public that our elected representatives have refused to enact.

This dangerous trend toward government-sponsored litigation isn't limited to tobacco. Other public agencies have advanced suits against gun makers and former manufacturers of lead paint. Who will be next? Fast food restaurants? Computer makers?

No American should feel secure when the enormous power of the government can be unleashed against them in these cynical schemes to raise revenue, change policy or gain publicity. If it can happen to one of us, it can happen to any of us.

Abusive government-sponsored litigation has the potential to drain billions of dollars and kill thousands of jobs from our already weak economy. More importantly, these lawsuits threaten to turn our balanced system of government upside down and jeopardize our freedoms as Americans.

Taxation without representation led our revolutionary forefathers to dump British tea into the Boston Harbor. So, too, should we dump the previous administration's economically destructive and legally suspect vendetta against lawful American industries.

Thomas J. Donohue is President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.