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Boston Globe
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Supreme Court allows vape companies to pick courts to hear challenges
Advertisement Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the opinion, which sent the case back to a lower court for more proceedings. Jackson wrote that the majority's opinion allows Reynolds to make an 'end run around … venue restrictions.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The FDA had told the justices that R.J. Reynolds and other electronic cigarette manufacturers were gaming court system rules by filing the vast majority of product-denial appeals in the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, even though they were based in other appeals court circuits. The tactic was hindering the FDA's ability to regulate vapes that are used by hundreds of thousands of teenagers, the agency said. In the case before the justices, the 5th Circuit — widely seen as more sympathetic to the companies' arguments than other circuits — overturned the FDA's denial of an R.J. Reynolds application. Advertisement The electronic cigarette ruling was one of six decisions issued Friday, with at least a week left in the Supreme Court's term. Ten decisions remain, including cases involving the legality of age-verification laws to access online pornography and nationwide court orders blocking President Trump's ban on birthright citizenship. In addition to the vape decision, the Supreme Court on Friday revived lawsuits brought by US victims of terrorist attacks in Israel against the Palestine Liberation Organization. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., upheld a 2019 federal law passed in response to attacks that allows Americans to sue. The court said that law does not violate the rights of the PLO. In a 7-2 decision, the justices also cleared the way for fuel producers to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over California's stricter standards for vehicle emissions. California's efforts are already in flux after being targeted by Trump and Republicans in Congress. Under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, manufacturers must get FDA approval to sell some existing products, as well as new products, that are marketed in more than one state. The Vuse line of menthol vapes are the ones in question in the R.J. Reynolds case. Ryan J. Watson, who is representing R.J. Reynolds, told the justices at oral arguments that the company was permitted to file a challenge in the 5th Circuit because the act allows 'any person adversely affected' by a denial to file a challenge in the District of Columbia Circuit or the 'circuit in which such person resides or has their principal place of business.' Advertisement R.J. Reynolds partnered with a Texas vape store and the Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association to bring the challenge to the FDA ruling. The 5th Circuit covers Texas and Mississippi, while R.J. Reynolds is in the 4th Circuit. Vivek Suri, an assistant to the solicitor general, arguing on behalf of the government, said Congress never meant for retailers or their representatives, rather than manufacturers, to be parties to such litigation when it passed the act. He pointed out that retailers aren't notified when the FDA rejects manufacturers' applications to market vaping products and said the tactic defeats the venue restrictions laid out in the law. But the Supreme Court said Friday it has long established a broad interpretation of what it means to be adversely affected by a law, including in the category anyone even 'arguably within the zone of interests' that the statute regulates. Vape industry groups applauded the ruling. Watson, the attorney for R.J. Reynolds, said the court 'recognized that federal agency action can have downstream effects that can be devastating for parties that are not the most direct target of the agency's action.' The ruling ensures that 'the courthouse doors are not closed for those adversely affected parties,' he said. Yolonda C. Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the decision will bolster efforts to market addictive products to young people. The ruling 'gives e-cigarette manufacturers an open invitation to forum-shop for friendly courts in their relentless quest to lure and addict kids with flavored, nicotine-loaded products,' she said. In her dissent to Friday's ruling, Jackson noted that two other appeals courts had rejected similar challenges filed by other manufacturers of flavored electronic cigarettes before R.J. Reynolds filed its appeal to the 5th Circuit. Advertisement 'It thus became (perhaps) imperative from RJR Vapor's perspective that its own lawsuit challenging the FDA's denial of its flavored e-cigarette marketing applications be filed somewhere else,' Jackson wrote.
New York Times
02-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Supreme Court Rules Against Makers of Flavored Vapes Popular With Teens
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration had acted lawfully in rejecting applications from two manufacturers of flavored liquids used in e-cigarettes with names like Jimmy the Juice Man Peachy Strawberry, Signature Series Mom's Pistachio and Suicide Bunny Mother's Milk and Cookies. In a unanimous decision written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the justices upheld an F.D.A. order that prohibited retailers from marketing flavored tobacco products. The court rejected claims that the agency had unfairly switched its requirements during the application process. Justice Alito wrote that the agency's denials of the applications were 'sufficiently consistent' with agency guidance on tobacco regulations. The justices rejected a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the agency had acted arbitrarily and capriciously, finding that the F.D.A. had not tried to change the rules in the middle of the approval process. A 2009 law, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, requires makers of new tobacco products to obtain authorization from the F.D.A. According to the law, the manufacturers' applications must demonstrate that their products are 'appropriate for the protection of the public health.' The agency has denied many applications under the law, including the two at issue in the case before the justices, saying the flavored liquids presented a 'known and substantial risk to youth.' The appeals court ruled last year that the agency had changed the rules in the middle of the application process, accusing it of 'regulatory switcheroos' that sent the companies 'on a wild-goose chase.' More formally, the court said the agency's actions had been arbitrary and capricious. In asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments, No. 23-1038, the agency's lawyers cited another appeals court that had reached the opposite conclusion. The Fifth Circuit's decision 'has far-reaching consequences for public health and threatens to undermine the Tobacco Control Act's central objective of 'ensuring that another generation of Americans does not become addicted to nicotine and tobacco products,'' they wrote, quoting from the other appeals court's decision.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Pray for Us Zynners
New York politicians are again targeting the finance sector—this time with a proposed ban on flavored nicotine pouches. The proposal, sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D–Manhattan), follows a one-two punch from Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to bar private equity from real estate investments and to outlaw "buy now, pay later" options on internet purchases. Nicotine pouches (including ZYN, Sesh, and Excel) deliver a buzz that keeps minds sharp and margins strong. Those in the know attest to the unparalleled edge that nicotine pouches provide. They help you lock in when you need it most: generating slide decks for client meetings, running models for your managing director, or pretending to understand what your quant just pulled from the terminal. Jokes aside, this proposal would be bad public health policy. Nicotine pouches—almond-sized packets users place between the lip and the gums—are an alternative to cigarettes and other harmful tobacco products. They contain a derived version of the nicotine compound that tobacco users crave without the carcinogenic sluff that comes with cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Cigarettes, still popular despite declining smoking rates, are high-risk. Cigarette smoke contains at least 70 known carcinogens, including benzene and arsenic. Smokeless tobacco—chew and dip—doesn't burn, but it still contains 28 known carcinogens, dramatically increasing the risk of oral, esophageal, and pancreatic cancers. Nicotine pouches contain no tobacco leaf and no known carcinogens. They just deliver nicotine—potentially addictive, yes, but not known to be inherently harmful. Indeed, they are harm reducers, giving people who want the concentration and mood benefits of the compound an option that avoids the grave risks more traditional products pose. Last year a randomized controlled trial in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research concluded that pouches "show the potential" of alternative nicotine delivery systems in helping smokers kick the habit. Viewed in that context, the trebling of pouch sales in New York state since 2022 is good news. Recognizing the positive tradeoffs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted ZYN authorization in January to market its flavored pouches nationally under its premarket tobacco product application pathway "following an extensive scientific review." According to the FDA, these products met the public health standard legally required by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which "considers the risks and benefits of products to the population as a whole." Hoylman-Sigal argues that kids will see pouches as glamorous, but there's no good evidence of that. Among American middle and high school students, tobacco use continues on a downward trend. From 2023 to 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that use of any tobacco product in that age group fell from 13 percent to 10 percent. Less than 2 percent used pouches. And as with all banned substances, outlawing flavored nicotine pouches will spark a black market and create a whole new kind of derivative trading. Unless Hoylman-Sigal wants a network of finance interns smuggling arbitraged wintergreen on the PATH train from Jersey City, they ought to can this ban. The post Pray for Us Zynners appeared first on
