Public Health Messages And The First Amendment: Graphic Warning Labels Struck Down
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-22-2023
ISSN
1544-5208
Publisher
Project HOPE
Language
en-US
Abstract
Twenty-five years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) attempted-for the first time-to use its statutory authority to regulate tobacco products. Commissioner David Kessler contended that nicotine was a drug and cigarettes were a delivery system (a device), and both could be regulated by the agency with existing authority. In FDA v. Brown & Williamson (2000), the US Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that the FDA did not have implied power to regulate tobacco because Congress would not “delegate a decision of such economic and political significance to an agency in so cryptic a fashion.” This opinion was among the first to explore the “major questions” theory, which the US Supreme Court elevated to doctrine in West Virginia v. EPA (2022).
Recommended Citation
Gregory D. Curfman & Nicole Huberfeld,
Public Health Messages And The First Amendment: Graphic Warning Labels Struck Down
,
in
Health Affairs
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/shorter_works/244
Publisher URL
https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/public-health-messages-and-first-amendment-graphic-warning-labels-struck-down
