The harbinger of all bad lawsuits to come – Press Enterprise

The companies behind Tony the Tiger, Fruit Loops, Heinz ketchup, Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Lucky Charms are lawyering up as the government takes them to court. Earlier this month, San Francisco launched a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against major food manufacturers, blaming them for the obesity and health crisis that has become a rallying cry for progressive activists and Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

“These companies created a public health crisis with the engineering and marketing of ultra-processed foods,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, who brought the suit on behalf of the state of California.

While the case is novel, it’s ripped from a playbook that is somewhat normal in American jurisprudence and civil litigation. 

The process goes something like this: A large company or industry becomes a political target, bold claims are made by attorneys, and aggressive advertising is used to recruit plaintiffs using TV, bus stop, and billboard signage, and finally, professional experts are hired to sway judges and juries. The trials last for months, achieve little, and end in large settlements because companies would rather pay the toll than endure months of negative headlines. Follow the lawfare industry long enough and you’ll learn that settlements don’t say anything about guilt. 

This latest case is a harbinger of what’s to come. Suing large, publicly listed companies over exaggerated harms and later settling for millions is the bread and butter of the class action and plaintiff lawyer industry, which raked in an estimated $42 billion last year. The burden on the American economy is silent, but significant — an estimated $542 billion a year, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in lost value. No surprise, much of this market-draining activity originates in California.

Though many of these cases are framed as civil justice for people who’ve been harmed, and there are legitimate cases that deserve a fair day in court, the most high-profile clashes are more often ideological pursuits that go far beyond the law.

Similarly, climate “nuisance” and consumer deception lawsuits filed against oil and gas firms blame well diggers, gasoline distillers, and pipeline companies for global climate change. The recent case launched by California Attorney General Rob Bonta against oil and gas giants accuses the companies of “defrauding” the citizens who bought and used their products when filling up their gas tanks.

One high-profile attorney who launched this sort of case in Colorado has acknowledged that these suits are intended to punish energy companies and extract their profits. What cannot be achieved in the legislature, therefore, will be attempted in the courts.

The lawsuit serves to enforce ideology through litigation rather than democratic policymaking. 

RFK Jr. has made clear that food manufacturers are a central target of his MAHA coalition. The former environmental trial attorney has accused food companies of “literally poisoning” our children, a claim he’s carried into policy during his brief stint. No surprise, his former injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan, is one of the main legal teams hired by San Francisco to try the case.