“Cigarette smoking is injurious to health”, this is a slogan that all mothers have been uttering for long years but in a recent case before the Court of Appeals in Washington the same slogan formed the major issue. In the case of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company v. FDA (accessible at:http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/4C0311C78EB11C5785257A64004EBFB5) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appealed against the decision of District Court.
The Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the lower court on 24th August 2012 in a ruling given out with a majority in the ratio of 2:1. Dissenting opinion was filed by Circuit Judge Rogers while the decision for the court was filed by Circuit Judge Brown and Senior Circuit Judge Randolph.
The case in district court (accessible at: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/opinion-2-29-12.pdf) was filed by five tobacco companies: Reynolds American Inc, Lorillard Inc; Commonwealth Brands Inc, which is owned by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group Plc; Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co Inc. These companies happen to cover the major cigarette market in the United States. They challenged the FDA initiated rulemaking process through which it selected nine images that would accompany the statutorily prescribed warnings.
The dissenting judge Rogers said, “In the rulemaking, the FDA articulated complementary, but distinct, interests in effectively conveying information about the negative health consequences of smoking to consumers and in decreasing smoking rates.” On the other hand Judge Brown said, “This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest -- in this case, by making 'every single pack of cigarettes in the country mini billboard' for the government's anti-smoking message.”
After hearing arguments from both sides the court's majority ruled the label requirements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as against corporate speech rights and hence against First Amendment Principles. According to the majority, the FDA could not provide enough evidence to prove that the graphic depictions would reduce smoking. Matthew Myers, an eminent personality, said that “Today's ruling is wrong on the science and law, and it is by no means the final word on the new cigarette warnings.”
Some of the images, as suggested by the FDA, include images of rotting teeth, diseased lungs, smoke around infants, etc. along with the phone number for a ‘stop-smoking hotline’ at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. FDA still considers these depictions as a necessity in order to warn the consumers, especially teenagers.