SCOTUS Declines To Hear Case On Graphic Cigarette Package Warnings

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In this photo illustration plain cigarette packaging can be seen on March 15, 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. As of 14 March 2018, legislation prevents tobacco companies using branding on their cigarette packaging. After a 12 week ‘wash out’ phase to allow existing stock to be sold as plain packaging is introduced. Moving forward tobacco packets will be the same standard brown or green, with graphic pictures and health warnings enlarged to cover at least 75% of the front of tobacco packs, and all tobacco company marketing imagery removed. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:30 PM – Monday, November 25, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements “showing the impacts of smoking.”

On Monday, the court declined to hear the challenge.

R.J. Reynolds, a tobacco company, filed the case after the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) packaging requirement was consistent with the First Amendment.

The company claimed that the images required by the FDA were “compelled speech” that violated the First Amendment. The FDA’s proposed labels included images of tumors, black lungs, surgery scars, and other health risks, as well as messages outlining the dangers of smoking.

R.J. Reynolds also argued that some of the proposed labels could be misleading and could possibly “overstate” the dangers of smoking.

Meanwhile, the FDA claimed that the images reflected the undeniable dangers of smoking, depicting a “factually accurate, common visual representation of the health condition and shows the disease state as it is typically experienced.”

According to the presented statement, cigarettes cause more than 480,000 deaths each year, prompting the FDA to urge the government to end the history of cigarette companies “knowingly and actively conspir[ing] to deceive the public about the health risks and addictiveness of smoking.”

Approximately 120 other countries have large graphic warnings on the packages, which studies suggest may be more effective at advertising cigarette smoking risks.

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