A federal judge on Monday, Nov. 7 blocked the federal government from requiring tobacco companies to begin putting graphic new warning labels on cigarette packages, cartons and advertisements beginning next year.   AWMA will provide more details as we have time to analyze the decision, but we wanted to get this quick note out.

Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. sued in August, saying the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulation mandates for cigarette packs, cartons and advertising violate the First Amendment.

In a 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon granted a request from five tobacco companies to issue a preliminary injunction barring implementation of the Food and Drug Administration’s new mandate.

“The Court concludes that plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood that they will prevail on the merits of their position that these mandatory graphic images unconstitutionally compel speech, and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent injunctive relief pending a judicial review of the constitutionality of the FDA’s rule,” Leon wrote  in his decision.

The judge’s decision puts on hold a plan unveiled in June by the FDA designed to shock customers with nine graphic images of tobacco’s impact, including smokers exhaling through a tracheotomy hole, struggling for breath in an oxygen mask and lying dead on a table with a long chest scar.

Cigarette cartons, packs and advertising would have been required to feature these and six other graphic warnings, replacing the discreet admonitions that cigarette manufacturers have been required to offer since 1966. The startling images would have dominated half of the front and back of each carton and pack and 20 percent of each large ad.

The color images also would include a diseased lung, a mouth with mottled teeth and a disfigured lip, a weeping woman and a cartoon of a crying baby in an incubator along with messages such as “Warning: Cigarettes are addictive,” “Warning: Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Warning: Smoking can kill you.”

Each brand would have rotated all the images throughout the year. Every warning would also have to include “1-800-QUIT-NOW,” a hotline smokers could call for help kicking the habit.