Judge strikes down NYC's gruesome tobacco ads
Legal News Center
The city's campaign to scare smokers with grotesque images of decaying teeth or a diseased lung wherever tobacco products are sold was struck down Wednesday by a federal judge who concluded that only the federal government can dictate warnings that must accompany the promotion of cigarettes.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff handed a victory to the nation's three largest tobacco manufacturers and the retailers who sell their products when he ruled on the legality of a 2009 city Board of Health code change requiring the display of smoking cessation signs where tobacco products are sold.
"Even merchants of morbidity are entitled to the full protection of the law, for our sake as well as theirs," Rakoff said. He released the written decision just days before an agreement among the parties to delay enforcement of the rule was to expire on Saturday.
He said the federal Labeling Act, first enacted in 1965, sought to balance public and commercial interests with a comprehensive federal program to deal with cigarette labeling and advertising. He said it was created in part to prevent "diverse, nonuniform and confusing cigarette labeling and advertising regulations." Part of the law dictated that no state law could impose a requirement or prohibition with respect to advertising or promotion of cigarettes, he noted.
Related listings
-
UGA to screen documentary on civil rights lawyer
Legal News Center 12/29/2010The University of Georgia is hosting a screening of a documentary about the lawyer who helped the first two black students gain admission in the early 1960s."Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice" will premiere Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. in Mast...
-
New law forces pet stores to share health details
Legal News Center 12/27/2010A new state law that will take effect on New Year's Day requires pet stores to give potential buyers the details of every animal's health history. The Illinois Department of Agriculture says the new law will require that stores provide an animal's va...
-
Texan pleads guilty, will forfeit grenade launcher
Legal News Center 12/22/2010A Corpus Christi-area man has pleaded guilty to two weapons charges and will forfeit a grenade launcher and more than 11,000 rounds of ammunition.Jeremy Charles Davenport of Odem will be sentenced March 9, 2011, and faces up to 10 years in prison on ...
Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.