Another Tobacco Flavor Ban Withstands Reynolds Challenge

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and related companies can’t stop a ban on sales of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products in Edina, Minn., because the Tobacco Control Act allows the ordinance, a federal court in the state ruled.

Judge Patrick J. Schlitz ruled for the city, even though he disagreed with its reasoning that the ordinance doesn’t create a tobacco product standard like those within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s purview. It does create a standard, but the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act has a provision “saving” such local laws from preemption, Schlitz said for ...