U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking required images on cigarette packages until 15 months after a lawsuit is resolved. Judge Leon believes cigarette makers might win their case.
U-S-A Today reports: “In June, the F-D-A approved nine graphic warnings that tobacco makers could rotate on cigarette packs beginning in September 2012. The images, which would cover the top half of the front and back of each pack, include a corpse with chest staples on an autopsy table and a man breathing into an oxygen mask”.
In August, four of the five largest U.S. tobacco companies sued the federal government … arguing that the warning labels would cost millions to print and would violate their free-speech rights.
I don’t like smoking. I see nothing wrong with restricting smoking in public places. I don’t want any of my loved ones to smoke. But I think the government has gone too far in trying to dictate the labels on cigarette packaging. I think the F-D-A ought to lose this case.
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Our thought for today is from Robert Jackson:
“The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.”
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