Judge Blocks Gruesome Cigarette Labels

Big Tobacco was likely to win First Amendment complaint
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 7, 2011 2:21 PM CST
Gruesome Cigarette Labels Blocked By Judge
In this combo made from file images provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows two of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012.   (AP Photo/U.S. Food and Drug Administration, File)

Wheeze out a sigh of relief, smokers of America: You won't have to look at a blackened lung or rotting teeth when you buy a pack of smokes next year after all. US District Judge Richard Leon blocked the new labels today, ruling that tobacco companies were likely to win their lawsuit claiming that they violated their First Amendment rights. Leon had previously held a hearing over the question of whether the graphic labels simply conveyed the facts about cigarettes' health risk, or constituted outright anti-smoking advocacy, the AP reports. (More cigarettes stories.)

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