By Marisha Kelly
AP Photo/Jens Meyer
Philip Morris USA sued the City of San Francisco on Sept. 24 for enacting a law that would prohibit tobacco products from being sold in convenience drug stores, according to Firstamendmentcenter.org.
Asserting that its First Amendment rights to sell a legal product were being violated, the nation’s leading cigarette retailer went to Federal Court.
“Although called a ban on sales, the purpose and effect of the ordinance is to suppress communications directed to adult smokers, in violation of our constitutional rights,” said Joe Murillo, Altria Client Services vice president and associate general counsel, in a company announcement on the PM USA Web site. “Likewise, the ban unfairly deprives adult consumers of the opportunity to buy tobacco products from legitimate licensed retail businesses.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly (2001) that the selling and use of tobacco products by adults is a legal act, even though the state holds substantial interest in preventing kids and teens from tobacco use.
PM USA requested a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the law from going into effect Oct. 1, according to an ABC Bay City News local report. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland rejected the TRO late on Sept. 26.
Walgreens requested an emergency injunction against the ban, which passed in July, in Superior Court. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Walgreens said the ban was discriminatory, affecting individual pharmacies but not "grocery stores or big-box stores that have pharmacies within them and also sell cigarettes."
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