Tobacco manufacturers challenge City of Edina's ban on flavored tobacco products

Client(s) Reynolds American Inc.

Jones Day recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other clients that challenges a City of Edina, Minnesota ordinance banning flavored tobacco products. As the complaint alleges, this ban is unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause. The tobacco companies claim that federal law expressly preempts the city's ban and denies states and local units of government the ability to promulgate tobacco product standards that are different from or in addition to federal standards. The tobacco companies also claim that federal law impliedly preempts the ordinance because the city's ban stands as an obstacle to the purposes of federal law and conflicts with Congress' and FDA's judgment that certain tobacco products should remain available to adult users of tobacco products.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. v. City of Edina, et al., No. 0-20-cv-01402 (D. Minn.)