A suit accusing four tobacco manufacturers of allegedly targeting children with misleading ads was snuffed out Thursday when the California Supreme Court said the claims clash with federal law.
The losing plaintiffs had relied on a 1994 California Supreme Court ruling, which concluded that similar claims against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in another case weren’t pre-empted by federal law. But the state’s high court held Thursday its prior decision was overruled by a subsequent opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court.
