On 8th January, the US Supreme Court declined to hear tobacco company RJ Reynolds’ challenge to California’s flavour ban on tobacco products. This isn’t the first time a similar challenge has been rejected on the same grounds.
While plaintiffs challenging the law argue that states and localities don’t have the power to regulate tobacco product sales, the Tobacco Control Act explicitly preserves the authority of states and localities to do so. They may enact a more stringent law as long as it doesn’t conflict with federal law, which no court has yet found that flavour bans do.
