Defendants argued that the scope and breadth of the case, involving allegations that spanned approximately 50 years, made the case nonjusticiable. The court did not find those arguments persuasive. In particular, the government, which was the party with the burden of proof,4 argued that for approximately 50 years, the defendants falsely and fraudulently denied: (1) that smoking causes lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), as well as many other types of cancer; (2) that second hand smoke causes disease and endangers the respiratory systems of children; (3) that nicotine is a highly addictive drug which they manipulated in order to sustain addiction; (4) that they marketed and promoted low tar/light cigarettes as less harmful when in fact they were not; (5) that they intentionally marketed to young people under the age of twenty-one and denied doing so; and (6) that they concealed evidence, destroyed documents, and abused the attorney-client privilege to prevent the public from knowing the dangers of smoking and to protect the industry from adverse litigation results. The court ultimately found that the government met its burden and proved these allegations. In preparing its case, the government was allowed to conduct discovery, including the production of documents and deposition testimony from witnesses within and outside the United States. The tobacco industry inundated the government with discovery requests, and discovery took place over a four year period. The trial in the case, following extensive pretrial motions, took place from September 2004 through May 2005—nine months. The case was tried before the bench rather than a jury, and the Honorable Gladys Kessler presided. On August 17, 2006, Judge Kessler issued an opinion consisting of 1,683 pages, holding that the tobacco companies were liable for violating RICO by fraudulently covering up the health risks associated with smoking. She found defendants liable for a RICO conspiracy, noting that they engaged in and executed, and continued to engage in and execute, a massive 50-year scheme to defraud the public, including consumers of cigarettes, in violation of RICO. The foundation of defendants’ case was denial; they had no affirmative defenses. The government’s case was largely a case made through documentary evidence. The tobacco industry’s own internal documents obtained through state cases and in discovery provided the best evidence supporting the government’s allegations of the fraudulent manner in which the industry conducted itself. Judge Kessler summed up the case in her August 26, 2006 ruling as follows: “The seven-year history of this extraordinarily complex case involved the exchange of millions of documents, the entry of more than 1,000 orders, and a trial which lasted approximately nine months with 84 witnesses testifying in open court. Those statistics, and the mountains of paper and millions of dollars of billable lawyer hours they reflect, should not, however, obscure what this case is really about. It is about an industry, and in particular these Defendants, that survives, and profits, from selling a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a staggering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and 4 As a civil action, the government had to prove its case by a preponderance of the evidence. Had a criminal case been filed under the RICO statute, the government would have had a higher burden of proof and would have been required to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. 5