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- Része ennek Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (Clinton Administration), Harold Ickes, Jr.'s Files
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 6THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 27, 1995
MEMORANDUM TO HAROLD ICKES
JENNIFER 0' CONNOR
FROM:
CHRIS CERF cre
RE:
Ruling in Tobacco Litigation
As anticipated, the District Court in Greensboro ruled in
our favor on our Motion to Stay Proceedings on Plaintiffs' Motion
for Summary Judgment. In so doing, the Court agreed with our
position that -- before even addressing the issue of the FDA's
jurisdiction over tobacco -- it should consider whether the case
should be dismissed pending promulgation of a final rule.
Final briefing on the latter issue will be complete December
22nd. Thus, it is unlikely that we will have a ruling before
the end of the year. As you know, the comment period ends on
January 2nd.
If we lose the motion to dismiss, the court would set a
relatively short briefing schedule for the tobacco companies'
motion for summary judgment. My guess is that the issue would be
briefed and set for a ruling by late February.
If we win our motion to dismiss, proceedings will be
suspended until the issuance of a final rule, which may occur as
early as February. At that point, the summary judgment motion
would be revived, and the court would be in a position to rule on
it within approximately 60 days. As soon as the rule is final,
however, we should anticipate a motion for preliminary relief.
Thus, it is possible that the court would issue a provisional
ruling within a matter of weeks after the promulgation of the
final rule.