FDA
FDA

A federal judge has suspended a government plan to require tobacco companies
to display graphic anti-smoking warning labels on their cigarette packs by next fall,
citing a violation of the First Amendment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the labels in question in June
 – a series of nine different images with text warnings that convey messages about
the health risks of smoking and tobacco use. But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon
ruled on Monday that the labels do far more than merely provide information;
rather, they make no secret of their anti-smoking bias: one zooms in on autopsy
staples in a dead man's chest; another features a man blowing smoke through his
tracheotomy hole. In taking a stand, Leon ruled, the labels — which would have
represented the first change to tobacco warnings in 25 years —  inappropriately
advocate for consumers to quit smoking or never start in the first place.
The labels, which were slated to cover the top half of cigarette packs sold in the U.S.
include text such as, "Warning: Cigarettes causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers"
and “Warning: Smoking can kill you.”/.../