US Supreme Court rejects challenge to California flavored tobacco ban
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's challenge to a voter-approved measure in California that banned flavored tobacco products in the most-populous U.S. state.
The justices rejected an appeal by R.J. Reynolds, a unit of British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI), and other plaintiffs of a lower court's ruling holding that California's law did not conflict with a federal statute regulating tobacco products.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who defended the law in court, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, called the Supreme Court's decision «excellent news.»
«We look forward to continuing to fight to prevent addiction and protect the health of our people,» Bonta said.
R.J. Reynolds declined to comment.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020 signed into law a ban on all flavored tobacco products — including menthol cigarettes and cotton candy-flavored vaping products — in response to concerns about a rise in e-cigarette and tobacco use by teenagers.
The ban's implementation was delayed after a tobacco industry coalition gathered enough signatures to put to voters a ballot measure that would block California from becoming the largest state to ban flavored tobacco product sales. But nearly two-thirds of voters casting ballots on the measure known as Proposition 31 approved the sales ban in November 2022.
The law made California the second state to ban all flavored tobacco product sales after Massachusetts in 2019. Several other states have restricted flavored vaping products and several municipalities have adopted their own bans.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020 banned all flavors except tobacco and menthol in Juul and
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