Top Court Urged to Review Graphic Labels

Cigarette manufacturers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling affirming a Food and Drug Administration rule mandating graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertisements, reports Law360.

In March, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected industry arguments that FDA’s plans violates companies’ free speech rights and that the requirement overpowers branding and messaging on packages and advertisements due to the size of the images and lettering.

Earlier, a district court had found that the new labels were provocative, value-laden messages that burdened tobacco companies’ free speech, but the Fifth Circuit disagreed, concluding that the warnings are undisputedly factual and the images “are no different from those a medical student might see in a textbook.”

On Aug. 19, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., ITG Brands and other tobacco companies urged the nation’s top court to review the appeals court’s decision, arguing that the proposed warnings are “massive, provocative and misleading.”

They also noted that the Fifth Circuit’s finding are at odds with other court rulings that found “far smaller warnings were unduly burdensome.”

“The Fifth Circuit’s opinion, if permitted to stand, would authorize the government to require similar massive and grotesque admonitions on virtually any disfavored consumer product—from fast food, candy and wine to plastic straws, firearms and gas stoves,” the petition said.

The FDA released the final rule in March 2020 requiring new graphic warnings for cigarettes that feature some of the lesser-known but still serious health risks of smoking, such as diabetes, on the top half of the front and back of cigarette packages and at least 20 percent of the area on the top of cigarette advertisements.