An appeal of a lower court ruling maintaining a 2019 law in Los Angeles County, California, prohibiting flavored tobacco and vaping products has been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law, which went into effect in 2020, forbade the in-store sale of menthol cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and flavored vapes in the county's unincorporated districts.
The court's decision not to consider the appeal may signal that it will consider no more on the same grounds in the future. This would apply to an appeal of decisions in the future that support California's statewide tobacco and flavored vape prohibition, which went into force in December.
R.J. Reynolds contested the L.A. County statute, arguing that states and local governments are prohibited from controlling tobacco sales by the federal Tobacco Control Act. The tobacco manufacturer was unsuccessful in its initial lawsuit in a federal district court in 2021, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in March of last year.
Without offering a reason, the Supreme Court declined to consider the L.A. County appeal, which could be a negative indication for Reynolds' attempt to overturn the state-wide flavor prohibition that California voters adopted last year. An injunction that would have halted the statewide ban while it was being considered in federal district court was already denied by the top court.
Reynolds' arguments against the statewide prohibition are almost exactly the same as those the company's attorneys used to unsuccessfully challenge the county statute. The case will be heard by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and then appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The two laws themselves are essentially the same as well.
