Reynolds Loses Challenge to Los Angeles Tobacco Flavor Ban (1)

A Los Angeles ban on sales of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products is valid because federal law allows it, the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday in a case brought by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and related companies.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act “carefully balances federal and local power by carving out the federal government’s sole authority to establish the standards for tobacco products,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke said for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The carve-out preserves “state, local, and tribal authority to regulate or ban altogether sales of some or all tobacco ...