A Washington judge declared unconstitutional a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandate that would force cigarette makers to use the labels, which include images of a corpse of a smoker, smoking-damaged teeth and gums and diseased lungs, saying that it violated cigarette makers’ freedom of speech under the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his ruling that the images “were neither designed to protect the consumer from confusion or deception, nor to increase consumer awareness of smoking risks; rather, they were crafted to evoke a strong emotional response calculated to provoke the viewer to quit or never start smoking.”
I”m not a smoker and I don’t understand why anyone would smoke, but the fact is, manufacturers of a legal product should not be silenced or forced to put emotionally and ideologically driven material on their packaging. Either outlaw the product or leave these manufacturers alone.
