Supreme Court rules that FDA cannot regulate tobacco industry

The United States Supreme Court, rejecting the Clinton administration's unprecedented effort to control how cigarettes are sold and marketed in the United States, has ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lacks the power to regulate tobacco.

In the 5 to 4 ruling, the judges said that the FDA overreached its authority when it reversed a decades old policyin 1996 and sought to crack down on cigarette sales to minors.

“By no means do we question the seriousness of the problem that the FDA has sought to address,” Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court. “The agency has amply demonstrated that tobacco use, particularly among children and adolescents, poses perhaps …