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The Legal & Political Importance of State Attorneys General - UCLA Law School - Fall 2022

Tobacco Litigation of the 1990s

While multistate litigation existed long before the states' fight against Big Tobacco, it was the tobacco litigation of the late 1990s that helped then-current and future AGs understand just how powerful they could be when joining forces with like-minded states. It also began the backlash led by conservative AGs and led to more partisan divisions among the states' respective AGOs -- offices that had previously been viewed as relatively nonpartisan guardians of consumer protection and law enforcement.