You may have read John Grisham's latest book The Appeal. In it the evil CEO of a chemical company buys a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court so that he can get an expensive verdict overturned.
They say that truth is stranger than fiction: in December 2006 when the US Supreme Court declined to review the dismissal of a $10.1bn award against Philip Morris for "enticing smokers to buy "light" cigarettes on a fraudulent promise that they were lower in tar and nicotine" the tobacco industry breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The State Supreme Court judge that cast the deciding vote? Step forward Judge Lloyd Karmeier, who received millions of dollars in campaign support from the tobacco industry, in particular - you guessed it - Philip Morris Inc.
To read Dorothy Samuels' brilliant expose of judicial corruption in the NY Times, go here...http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/opinion/13talkingpoints.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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