A suit brought by tobacco companies challenging new regulations which require them to display large, graphic warnings on cigarette packages will not be heard by the Supreme Court, reports The Hill.
The companies dispute the legality of a 2009 tobacco law, demanding that half of every pack of cigarettes is covered with an image and government-approved text warning of the deleterious health effects of tobacco use.
Don’t expect to see the new labels just yet. An appeals court previously blocked the labeling effort and that decision still stands, according to the U.S. News and World Report. According to the ruling, the FDA must prove that such a labeling effort will correlate with reduced smoking rates
“FDA will undertake research to support a new rulemaking consistent with the Tobacco Control Act,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Haliski told the news source.
The agency currently has no time table for the implementation of the labels.