Fifth Circuit Mulls FDA’s Power in Cigarette Health Warning Rule

A federal appeals court on Tuesday questioned whether Congress gave the FDA authority to implement a halted regulation that would require cigarette packages to contain new graphic warning labels.

“Is is there a middle ground here,” Judge Leslie H. Southwick of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit asked the Food and Drug Administration.

“Even if you believe, or two judges believe, that R.J. Reynolds is pushing too hard for basically chiseling in stone almost the text that Congress passed, we may also think that the FDA has gone too far and made too substantial of changes,” said ...