March 1, 2010
FDA Names Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee
The Food and Drug Administration has taken a critical step in implementing its new authority to regulate tobacco products by appointing a group of highly qualified scientists and health professionals to its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. The panel appointed today includes some of the world’s foremost scientific authorities on tobacco products and marketing – experts who will provide advice, information and recommendations to the FDA on a wide range of tobacco-related issues.
Read the roster of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.
Read the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium’s factsheets about the federal regulation of tobacco.
Smoke-free Multi-Housing and the Law: Benefits and Legal Strategies
March 22, 2010 12-1:30 p.m.
The Volunteer Lawyers Network and the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition will present a free webinar on “Smoke-free Multi-Housing and the Law: Benefits and Legal Strategies,” featuring Public Health Law Center Staff Attorney Warren Ortland and Carrissa Duke from the Association for Nonsmokers – Minnesota. 1.0 CLE credits applied for.
U.S., Public Health Groups and Big Tobacco Ask Supreme Court to Review Racketeering Case
The U.S. government, six public health groups, and three cigarette manufacturers have separately petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a racketeering verdict against major tobacco companies that was upheld by an appeals court last year. The health groups are intervenors in the case, making them formal parties to the lawsuit. The request for the high court to consider the case stems from a landmark ruling in 2006 in which the cigarette manufacturers were found guilty of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In that ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler found that major cigarette manufacturers had violated civil racketeering laws, defrauded the American people by lying for decades about the health risks of smoking and aggressively marketed their deadly products to children. Judge Kessler ruled that the penalties she could impose on the tobacco companies were limited by a controversial appeals court ruling that restricted the remedies she could impose under the civil RICO law to “forward-looking” remedies aimed at future racketeering violations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld Judge Kessler’s ruling on May 22, 2009.
In their petitions, both the government and the six public health group intervenors are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the part of the U.S. v. Philip Morris decision that restricted the penalties Judge Kessler could order. They argue that RICO is not limited to remedies to restrain future violations, but instead allows courts to fashion remedies that fully redress past violations, including through the disgorgement of billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains by the tobacco industry, as well as equitable remedies such as smoking cessation and public education programs. The tobacco companies (Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit, Lorillard Inc., and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco) are asking the Court to overturn the verdict. If the Supreme Court agrees to take this case, millions – even billions – of dollars in equitable penalties could be at stake.
Read the Department of Justice’s petition PDF, 142 Kb
Read the public health intervenors’ petition PDF, 143 Kb
Read Philip Morris’s petition PDF, 252 Kb
Presented by Sharon Eubanks
Friday, Feb. 19
Watch Sharon Eubanks, lead counsel representing the Department of Justice in the historic tobacco case, U.S. v. Philip Morris USA, et al, speak at William Mitchell College of Law as part of the Public Health Law Center’s series “Conversations in Public Health.”
The Public Health Law Center is pleased to announce the release of our latest publication, a white paper on regulatory issues involving front-of-package labels and other nutrition ratings systems. This paper, “Stumped at the Supermarket: Making Sense of Nutrition Rating Systems,” was written by staff attorney Kate Armstrong. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) commissioned the Public Health Law Center to write this research paper. NPLAN provides legal research, model policies, training and technical assistance to advocates and leaders in the childhood obesity prevention field.
A bewildering number of nutrition labeling and rating systems are used in markets in the U.S. and abroad – so many, in fact, that one might wonder whether these labels and rating systems are informing our food purchasing decisions or simply confusing us more about what to eat. Are they helping us shop smarter or causing information overload?
Our paper describes in detail the many front-of-package and grocery shelf nutrition rating systems used nationally and internationally. We analyze the challenges, including federal regulatory issues, with multiple systems. We conclude with recommendations on research needed to gauge the efficacy of nutrition rating systems and their potential to improve Americans’ diets.
Kate was invited to submit her Public Health Law Center white paper to a committee at the prestigious Institute of Medicine, which is conducting a national study of Front-of-Package Nutrition Ratings and Symbols.
» Read Stumped at the Supermarket: Making Sense of Nutrition Rating Systems PDF, 1.53 Mb
Legal Update Fall 2009 PDF 1.8 Mb
The Legal Update is a user-friendly newsletter from the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium that brings readers information on key legal developments affecting the tobacco control community. This issue introduces our newest law synopsis, Infiltration of Secondhand Smoke into Condominiums, Apartments and Other Multi-Unit Dwellings: 2009 (PDF, 1.8 Kb). We provide overviews of recent important tobacco cases, evolving regulation of flavored cigarettes, and tobacco control efforts in Africa. Tobacco law and policy expert Eric Lindblom is profiled, and new resources and upcoming events are listed.
To Vape or Not to Vape: Controversy Swirls Around E-Cigarettes PDF, 1.7 Mb
In the National Association of Local Boards of Health’s NewsBrief periodical (4th quarter 2009), Legal Consortium Staff Attorney Kerry Cork provides an overview of one of the newest “emerging tobacco products” – electronic cigarettes.
The Tobacco Control Legal Consortium is a national network supporting tobacco control policy change by giving advocates better access to legal expertise. The Consortium’s priorities are to help make legal technical assistance an integral part of comprehensive tobacco control programs, provide a limited degree of direct legal support and raise awareness of the role of legal services in effective policy change. Within its resources, the Consortium works to assist communities with urgent legal needs and to increase the legal resources available to the tobacco control movement.
The Consortium grew out of collaboration among existing legal programs serving five states. Drawing on the expertise of these legal centers and others, the Consortium provides legal technical assistance to support the creation of new legal programs and to help communities with urgent legal needs. Technical assistance services may include help with legislative drafting, legal research, legal analysis and strategy, training and presentations, preparation of friend-of-the-court legal briefs and litigation support.
The Consortium’s coordinating center, located at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, fields requests for information and coordinates the delivery of services by the collaborating legal resource centers.
» Learn more about the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium PDF, 937 Kb
Support for this program was provided in part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, and by the American Cancer Society.
