For a century after the Civil War, blacks in America's South were subjected to shameful acts of oppression and violence. Deprived of voice and vote, they had no choice but to suffer mutely as they were scurrilously attacked. Two California-based lawsuits indicate that a new minority scapegoat has been thrust, disarmed and disenfranchised, into the crosshairs. No, it is not a racial, ethnic, or religious minority. In Ayn Rand's words, now validated vividly by California's legal system, America's new persecuted minority is Big Business. Consider the suit filed recently by two tobacco giants, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard, in an attempt...