The marketing and advertising restrictions in the tobacco law that Congress passed last week are likely to be challenged in court on free-speech grounds. But supporters of the legislation say they drafted the law carefully to comply with the First Amendment.
The controversy, legal experts say, involves tension between the right of tobacco companies to communicate with adult smokers and the public interest in preventing young people from smoking.
Opponents of the new strictures, including the Association of National Advertisers and the American Civil Liberties Union, predict that federal courts will throw out the new marketing restrictions.
Opponents of the new strictures, including the Association of National Advertisers and the American Civil Liberties Union, predict that federal courts will throw out the new marketing restrictions.
President Obama announced last week that he would sign the legislation. A signing ceremony has not yet been scheduled, a White House spokesman said monday. The ad restrictions would go into effect about a year after the legislation becomes law.
Commercial free speech is not an absolute right, legal experts say. There are clear limits, for instance, on false advertising and on promotion of illegal activity. The issue grows more complicated if the advertising is both truthful and concerns a legal activity, like smoking by adults.
Tobacco companies would also be prohibited from sponsoring sporting or cultural events or giving awayor caps. Any form of audio advertising would be limited to words without music. R.J. Reynolds has not decided on legal challenges, spokeswoman Maura Payne said.
The Supreme Court found it to be an unconstitutional limit of the First Amendment right to free speech in part because it was simply too broad.
Commercial free speech is not an absolute right, legal experts say. There are clear limits, for instance, on false advertising and on promotion of illegal activity. The issue grows more complicated if the advertising is both truthful and concerns a legal activity, like smoking by adults.
Tobacco companies would also be prohibited from sponsoring sporting or cultural events or giving awayor caps. Any form of audio advertising would be limited to words without music. R.J. Reynolds has not decided on legal challenges, spokeswoman Maura Payne said.
The Supreme Court found it to be an unconstitutional limit of the First Amendment right to free speech in part because it was simply too broad.
Kathleen Dachille, a law professor and director of the Legal Resource Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation and Advocacy, said the Massachusetts linking youth smoking, which is illegal, to tobacco marketing ostensibly aimed at adults. She said the link has been reinforced in recent years by reports of theNational Cancer Institute.
Nytimes
