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 Court Stays Out of Gun Dispute
By GINA HOLLAND 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to be drawn into a dispute
over whether cities can sue gun manufacturers over crime costs, protecting
weapon makers from a round of government lawsuits in Louisiana.

New Orleans was the first city to file a lawsuit accusing gun makers of selling
unsafe products. The case was blocked by the Louisiana Legislature, which
passed a law retroactively banning those types of suits. Another 26 states have
passed similar laws.

The Supreme Court declined without comment to review a Louisiana Supreme Court
ruling that upheld that state's prohibition. The refusal likely chills cities'
efforts to sue gun makers despite state bans.

Similar Georgia and Michigan laws have been contested. In addition, lawsuits
against gun makers are pending in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Ohio and
New York.

The gun litigation began after states sued tobacco companies to recover state
money spent on smoking-related illnesses. New Orleans filed its suit in 1998
and was copied by dozens of cities and counties around the nation.

The lawsuits sought to force manufacturers to repay hundreds of millions of
dollars that local governments have spent dealing with gun violence. State laws
made many of those suits moot.

``The Legislature enacted these laws for a single purpose: to protect the
special interests of one favored industry,'' New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial said
in urging the Supreme Court to take the appeal. ``The Founding Fathers sought
to prevent precisely this sort of targeted legislation.''

Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster had sought the 1999 law and said the state Supreme
Court ruling earlier this year ``lays to rest, at least in Louisiana for a
while, this business of going after legal corporations.''

The state court said it is unconstitutional to pass laws that retroactively
affect private citizens, not local governments. The court also agreed with gun
makers that the lawsuit illegally intrudes on the state's police power to
regulate guns.

``Without question, the city's lawsuit here threatened the state of Louisiana's
exercise of its police powers in maintaining uniform, centralized control over
the regulation of firearms within the state,'' the industry told the Supreme
Court.

The companies, including Smith & Wesson Corp. and Glock Corp., said that New
Orleans tried to overstep its bounds with the lawsuit: ``However described, New
Orleans is still a city, not the 51st state.''

The first tobacco lawsuit was filed in 1994 by Mississippi. Cigarette makers
settled out of court with states for $246 billion.

The National Rifle Association has aggressively pushed state laws to pre-empt
local government lawsuits.

A district judge in Louisiana had ruled that the state law was
unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court disagreed, prompting the appeal to
the high court.

Gun companies had asked the Supreme Court not to disturb ``this unique,
first-of-its-kind ruling.''

The case is Morial v. Smith & Wesson, 01-181.



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