WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected appeals by the Obama administration and the nation's largest tobacco companies to involve itself in a legal fight about the dangers of cigarette smoking that has stretched more than 10 years.
The court's action, issued without comment Monday, leaves in place court rulings that the tobacco industry illegally concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. It also prevents the government from trying to extract billions of dollars from the industry either in past profits or to fund a national campaign to curb smoking.
