A state rule prohibiting communities from enacting prohibitions on flavored vape pens and other limitations on nicotine & tobacco products that are more stringent than those set out by the state has been declared illegal by an Ohio court. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark Serrott ruled in a case brought by twenty-one Ohio municipalities against the state, stating that the statute infringes upon the home rule rights of the towns as protected by the state constitution.
Judge Serrott issued a temporary restraining order last month to prevent the state legislation from going into effect on April 23 as planned.
The Columbus taste ban, as well as the tobacco and e-cigarette bans imposed by Toledo and a few other smaller towns, will stay in place according to the court's May 17 ruling. It also gives Cleveland the opportunity to follow through on Mayor Justin Bibb's threat to impose a taste ban.
But only the cities who joined Zach Klein, the Columbus City Attorney's complaint, are covered by the ruling. All other Ohio communities would be subject to the preemption statute and unable to enact laws more stringent than those of the state until other courts overturned Judge Serrott's ruling.
Athens, Cincinnati, Barberton, Bexley, Cleveland, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Hilliard, Kent, Heath, North Ridgeville, Oberlin, Reynoldsburg, Oxford, Springfield, Upper Arlington, Toledo, Whitehall, and Worthington were among the other co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in addition to Columbus, as reported by UPI.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the state will file an appeal of Judge Serrott's ruling with the Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals.
The Ohio General Assembly approved the statute exempting municipal tobacco and e-cigarette prohibitions in the budget bill of the previous year. The preemption clause in the measure was removed in January by Governor Mike DeWine using his line-item veto authority. However, the veto was swiftly overridden by votes in both chambers of the legislature.
There are now five states that have banned flavored vapes: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. A taste prohibition that Utah approved in March will go into force in January of next year. A number of significant cities, including Boulder, Colorado, and Chicago, have enacted taste bans.
