Does This Lawsuit Make Me Look Fat?Are french fries the new Marlboros?

On Tuesday, a New York appellate court re-opened the door to parts of a 2002 lawsuit against McDonald's, blaming the fast food chain for making Americans fat. The decision signals the start of a full discovery and disclosure period. In 2003, Dahlia Lithwick looked at the wave of lawsuits inspired by improbable victories over Big Tobacco and found the Big Food plaintiffs relied too heavily on dubious claims of causality and wacky conspiracy theories to stand a legitimate chance of vindication. This week's appeals court decision suggests the plaintiffs may have shown enough of a link between big fat and Big Food to prevail.

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