OAN's Elizabeth Bolbelding
3:25 PM – Monday, January 8, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company's challenge to California's standards banning flavored tobacco products in the state.
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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to California's flavored tobacco ban, leaving the state's law in place.
The Supreme Court heard RJ Reynolds, a British American Tobacco (BAT) corporation, and additional plaintiffs' appeal of a lower court's ruling that California law does not conflict with federal law governing tobacco products. was rejected.
These companies, which manufacture tobacco products and cigarettes, argued that: tobacco control law (TCA) did not authorize states within the country to ban flavored cigarettes. California's flavored tobacco product ban went into effect in December 2022. 62% of state voters voted in favor of passing the ban.
“Under the TCA, states have broad authority to regulate the sale of tobacco products, including raising minimum purchase ages, restricting sales to certain times and locations, and imposing licensing regimes. “But one thing they cannot do is completely ban the sale of those products because they do not meet state-recommended tobacco product standards.” I wrote in the request that the matter be taken up in court. “That's because the TCA's preemption clause specifically denies states and localities the authority to enact 'different from, or in addition to, federal tobacco product standards.'
Tobacco producers argue that the ban “closes the door to one of the nation's largest markets for flavored tobacco products, thereby banning products that have been legally sold (menthol cigarettes).” For these reasons, he argued that the Supreme Court should take up the case. It has been on sale for almost a century,” adding that the ban “could cost $1.4 billion in economic output and thousands of jobs.”
The Supreme Court had been asked by California not to take up the case. Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-Calif.), in asking the court not to take up the case, said states should regulate tobacco products and cited past decisions to support his position. .
“This court long ago recognized the broad power of states to so regulate.'' “It's within,” he concluded. [cigarettes] It can be sold or prohibited from sale entirely,” Bonta wrote in court documents.
“In the 14 years since the TCA was enacted, not a single court has agreed with the tobacco industry's position that the law preempts restrictions or bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products,” he added.
Bonta, who has previously defended the law in court, called the Supreme Court's decision “great news.”
“Great news: The Supreme Court has declined to consider Big Tobacco's challenge to California's flavored tobacco ban,” Bonta wrote to X. “California residents overwhelmingly approve of the state's flavored tobacco ban, and my office has proudly defended it in court.” I look forward to continuing to fight to protect it. ”
Previously, RJ Reynolds unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to halt enforcement of the California law while the state's appeals proceed. The request was denied by a judge in December 2022.
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