Philip Morris USA Inc. and Sherman Group Holdings, LLC v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration et al. (2020)
Industry challenges the FDA’s 2020 graphic warning label rule on First Amendment grounds.
Litigation is an important tool to defend and advance public health policy. This tracker provides information and official court documents from select lawsuits within the focus areas of the Public Health Law Center, including commercial tobacco control and healthy eating. Some cases are relevant to cross-cutting issues that affect public health, such as preemption and First Amendment considerations. The Public Health Law Center has supported public health goals as an amicus curiae, or friend-of-the-court, by filing briefs (included here) with relevant information that the court may choose to consider. You can read more about the Function and Role of Amicus Briefs in Public Health Litigation.
CA Smoke and Vape Association, Inc. et al. v. City of Palmdale (2020)
Industry trade association challenges City of Palmdale’s flavored tobacco product sales restriction, arguing that the ordinance is expressly and impliedly preempted by federal law.
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company et al. v. U.S. Food & Drug Administration et al., No. 6:20-cv-00176 (E.D. Tex. 2020)
Shortly after the FDA issued its new graphic warning label rule in the March 18, 2020 Federal Register, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and several other manufacturers, distributors, and retailers filed suit against the FDA in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
American Academy of Pediatrics et al., v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration et al. (2018)
Public health groups successfully challenged FDA’s 2017 guidance indefinitely extending premarket review deadlines.
Big Time Vapes, Inc., et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2019)
An e-cigarette manufacturer and trade association challenged the deeming rule on constitutional grounds.
American Academy of Pediatrics v. U.S. Food & Drug Administration (2016)
Public health groups sued the FDA to compel the agency to require graphic warning labels on cigarette packages and advertisements. The public health groups won. FDA appealed, but dropped the appeal after it issued a new graphic warning rule in March, 2020.
Cyclops Vapor 2, et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2016)
E-Cigarette manufacturers and distributors challenge the deeming rule under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the First Amendment.
NicoPure Labs LLC v. U.S. Food & Drug Administration (2016)
The Tobacco Control Act’s premarket authorization pathway does not violate the APA. Additionally, neither the pre-marketing authorization requirement applicable to modified risk products nor the free sample ban violate the First Amendment.
Jennifer Hochstatter v. John Arntz, Superior Ct. of State of Calif., County of San Francisco, No. CPF-19-516813 (2019)
The legal issue in this case is whether San Francisco’s ballot measure, Proposition C – supported by JUUL Labs and purportedly a youth access law – would allow flavored e-cigarettes back onto store shelves in San Francisco, overturning city laws passed in 2019 and 2017 that were intended to ban e-cigarettes not regulated by the FDA and to keep products like Juul’s mango and cucumber nicotine pods out of the hands of teens.
Cumberland Farms v. Town of Yarmouth Board of Health, No 2019-P-0020, Mass. Appeals Ct. (2019)
The legal issue in this case is whether the Town of Yarmouth’s multi-step review process based on smelling, tasting, and physically examining tobacco products, including “concept flavors” such as Jazz, meets the evidentiary standard required by law to identify these products as flavored.
Larry W. Faircloth v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2016)
An e-cigarette user sued the FDA arguing that the deeming rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as well as the First and Tenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Hoban, et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2018)
E-cigarette manufacturers and retailers challenged the deeming rule on Constitutional grounds.
Rave Salon Inc., et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2018)
E-cigarette manufacturer and retailer challenged the deeming rule under the U.S. Constitution.
Lost Art Liquids, LLC v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2016)
An e-cigarette manufacturer challenged serval aspects of the FDA’s deeming rule. The case was dismissed without any rulings on the substantive issued raised.
Mahfoud Abdella v. Town of Johnston & LA Enterprises, No. PC-2018-0466, Providence, R.I. S.C. (2019)
The legal issue in this case is whether the Town of Johnston, Rhode Island, has the authority to enact an ordinance that removes flavored tobacco products from general stores and requires that they be sold in vape shops or smoking bans, and that prohibits tobacco retailers from accepting coupons or providing discounts for any tobacco product.
Abdul Khan v. Town of Middletown, and The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC, C.A. No. NC-2017-0443 (2018)
The legal issue in this case is whether the Town of Middletown, Rhode Island, has the authority to enact science-based public health laws to protect its residents – particularly its youth – from addiction to tobacco products and the toll of tobacco-related disease and death.
K & W Automotive v. Barrington, No. PC-2018-0471, Providence, R.I. S.C. (2018)
The legal issue in this case is whether the Town of Barrington, Rhode Island, has the authority to enact science-based public health laws to protect its residents – particularly its youth – from addiction to tobacco products and the toll of tobacco-related disease and death.
Lora Jean Williams, et al. v. City of Philadelphia et al., Nos. 2077, 2078 CD 2016 (2017)
The legal issue in this case is whether the City of Philadelphia has the authority to implement a tax on soda and sugary drinks, levied on distributors of the products.
En Fuego Tobacco Shop LLC, et al. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2018)
Cigar retailers, manufacturers, and trade association challenged the deeming rule under the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
State of New York, City of New York v. United Parcel Service (U.S. Ct. of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit) (2018)
The legal issue in this case is whether the District Court’s civil penalty against UPS for illegally transporting hundreds of thousands of cartons of untaxed cigarettes from Indian reservation retailers to non-tribal members in the State of New York is constitutional, well within the court’s discretion, and consistent with the harm to public health caused by UPS’s violations.