Judge Questions New Cigarette Packaging Rules

A federal judge quizzed the government on whether or not it can make tobacco firms plaster their cigarette packages with graphic images.

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, a federal judge grilled the government on whether it can enforce its new graphic cigarette packaging regulations, the Associated Press reports. Last month, four of the five largest U.S. tobacco companies sued the federal government over the gruesome images.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) answered the tobacco industry’s lawsuit with an opposition brief. The new graphic cigarette labels are scheduled to take effect in 2012.

During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon probed Mark Stern, a lawyer for the Department of Justice, asking if the nine images go beyond informing the public about smoking’s health risks into advocating against cigarettes. If Leon sides with the tobacco firms that the packaging requirements are advocating instead of informing, it will bolster the companies’ request to stop the rules from taking effect.

The tobacco companies agree that the government can tell people how to live, such as restricting teens from smoking and by putting written warnings on packaging. However, Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment attorney, said that the government cannot “conscript” businesses “into an anti-smoking brigade.”
Leon said a ruling should be handed down by Oct. 31. Companies in the lawsuit include Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC, Lorillard Tobacco Co., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc.