U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has today issued a preliminary injunction barring the Food and Drug Administration from requiring the tobacco industry to include new, graphic warnings on their cigarette packages. Leon said that requring the labels is compelled speech that violates the First Amendment. We blogged about the lawsuit when it was filed. We also blogged about the new labels several times, including here. The labels are supposed to go into effect in September 2012.
Matt Myers, the head of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, responded this way to today's decision:
Judge Leon’s ruling ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence about the need for the new cigarette warnings and their effectiveness. It also ignores decades of First Amendment precedent that support the right of the government to require strong warning labels to protect the public health. Given the overwhelming evidence of the need for these warnings and the tobacco industry’s own admission of the factual accuracy of the warning statements, we are confident that this decision will not be the last word on the new warnings. It is but one decision in a long legal battle that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, and another federal judge has already upheld the law’s requirement for large, graphic cigarette warnings. Studies around the world and evidence presented to the FDA have repeatedly shown that large, graphic warnings, like those adopted by the FDA, are most effective at informing consumers about the health risks of smoking, discouraging children and other nonsmokers from starting to smoke, and motivating smokers to quit . . . . Because of that evidence, at least 43 other countries now require large, graphic cigarette warnings.
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