Gladys Kessler, a federal judge who issued a landmark ruling against the tobacco industry in 2006 — finding that cigarette makers had violated racketeering laws by conspiring to deceive the public about the deadly threat posed by smoking — died March 16 at a hospital in Washington, DC. She was 85.

Judge Kessler handled cases involving detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act; the administration of the Medicaid program; and environmental protection legislation. She rose to greatest prominence as the judge who presided over United States of America v. Philip Morris USA et al, a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in 1999 against leading U.S. cigarette makers.

The tobacco case is set to conclude later this year, nearly a quarter-century after it began, when, by court order, cigarette companies will begin displaying in retail stores signs about the dangers of cigarette smoking. One of them reads: “Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 American. Every day.”