Floyd Abrams’ Latest First Amendment Suit Challenges New Tobacco Law

First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams is waging a new First Amendment fight, this one against a new federal law restricting tobacco marketing.

Abrams represents the Lorillard Tobacco Co., one of several large cigarette makers challenging the law, signing by President Obama in June, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The case was filed in federal court in Bowling Green, Ky., because the federal appeals court for the region, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is more supportive to commercial speech issues than some other circuits, Abrams told the Times. Abrams is a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel.

Among the restrictions challenged in the suit:

• A requirement that tobacco packages carry enlarged warning labels and graphic depictions of smoking risks, such as pictures of diseased lungs.

• A bar on truthful statements by tobacco companies about the relative health risks of tobacco products such as smokeless tobacco, if the Food and Drug Administration determines such assertions won’t benefit the health of Americans overall.

• A provision that bans mention of tobacco company products, but allows the company’s name to be used, when it is a corporate sponsor of sports, cultural or musical events.

• Restrictions that bar color ads in magazines unless they are adult publications. The suit claims the definition of adult publications would bar color ads in People magazine and Sports Illustrated.

Prior coverage:

ABAJournal.com: “Challenge Likely for Law Limiting Tobacco Ads to Black-and-White Text”