Cigar Industry Lawsuit Against FDA's Deeming Rule Moves Forward

xDutchx

I just received this email from CRA this afternoon, concerning their lawsuit against the FDA's Deeming Rule. I thought it would be of interest to the membership.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Cigar Association of America, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association and Cigar Rights of America filed a Motion for Summary Judgment and opening brief in the cigar industry's litigation challenging the FDA's Final Deeming Rule.  

This filing serves as the next phase in the premium cigar industry's joint litigation challenging FDA's Final Deeming Rule, which began earlier this year in July with the Cigar Association of America, et al. v. Food and Drug Administration, et al. lawsuit in the same court.

In filing the summary motion, the three industry associations are petitioning the court to vacate and set aside the Deeming rule because it is unlawful and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.  

Among the arguments made in the filing are the following:FDA's Final Rule improperly subjected cigars and pipe tobacco to all aspects of the regulations; FDA arbitrarily imposed premarket review provisions without clarifying the substantial equivalence pathway for cigars and pipe tobacco;FDA impermissibly denied to cigars and pipe tobacco of the same stay of enforcement pending review of premarket applications as was provided to cigarettes;FDA rejected "Option 2" exempting premium cigars from regulation without any basis;FDA's decision to impose user fees on some, but not all, of the newly deemed products is contrary to law and exceeds statutory authority; FDA's Final Rule is based on a flawed cost-benefit analysis and imposes an unreasonable burden on small businesses;FDA's Final Rule warning label requirements violate the First Amendment; andFDA unreasonably imposed the new warning label requirements without making statutorily mandated findings.Speaking about the filing, Glynn Loope, Executive Director of Cigar Rights of America said, "The premium cigar industry continues its adamant objection to the Deeming Rule and its defective implementation.  This process has resulted in premium hand-made cigars being subjected to requirements that will cause irreparable economic harm to this artisan industry, and the Main Street America small businesses that rely upon it.  We trust that the merits of our argument will demonstrate to the court that the Deeming Rule is fundamentally flawed and legally deficient."
The hearing on the joint industry lawsuit is schedule to be held on July 28, 2017.  Cigar Rights of America will continue to provide updates as we move through the next phases of the litigation.

ghostsofpompeii

I've been hoping that with Donald Trump's aversion to Government Regulations he might prove to be somewhat of a champion for our cause. But he apparently also has an aversion to tobacco and does not smoke. So he might not be the proper champion for our cause. Unless he holds more distain for regulations than a person's right to smoke. 

xDutchx

@ghostsofpompeii, Hopefully Mr.Trump has been educated concerning the differences between big tobacco, and artisan tobacco. I can't help but think he has some long time friends, who are pipe and cigar smokers, and are bending his ear about now.

daveinlax

"I've been hoping that with Donald Trump's aversion to Government
Regulations he might prove to be somewhat of a champion for our cause.
But he apparently also has an aversion to tobacco and does not smoke. So
he might not be the proper champion for our cause. Unless he holds more
distain for regulations than a person's right to smoke."

This is why we're lobbying for a small, very targeted ruling. 
I'm a CRA member and I am confident they will get an exemption for premium hand rolled cigars that will get signed.

Woodsman

If you noticed, the Politicians seem to listen when people start sending lots of Letters, Emails and calls to them. We live in all the states so find out who your congressmen and senators are and inform them how upsetting this is, and mention all the small businesses and craftsmen can't afford the draconian application fees, how our hobby is far from as harmful as cigarettes, etc..

Pile it on high and send them letters as these are carry much more weight than Emails, and calls. 

If you keep hammering you can break anything. Fight for your rights. 

Philip

Contacting your representatives is exactly the right thing to do, even State reps. Nobody bugs their representatives more than I.  But this government has become so massive and dominating that it's just going to do whatever they want. They can't resist the power. I can't really say what I think or else at least half of the people will hate my guts. But I will say this. I don't like picking each line item out and compromising. Saying this guy is fine but not that one is disgusting to me. Tobacco is legal period. Don't fall prey to the notion of cherry-picking regulations and saying the ones you don't care about are fine. Government has a specific and limited role.

Maybe some aspect of this regulation will allow small houses to continue, but make no mistake about it, they will never stop. Eventually they will come for them as well. I see one of the arguments is basically they don't have regulatory authority. I agree with that but I would also say that Congress doesn't either. I would have a tough time arguing that point if it came to State law but I'd worry about that later. Somewhere, sometime the line is going to have to be drawn, and not by the government but by the people. We decide what we want to do. Does individual liberty even mean anything anymore?

By the way, just to make it clear I'm not anti-regulation. But with a registry of well over a million pages, adding tens of thousand of pages a year, isn't it enough already?

xDutchx

Here is the link, where you can contact your US Senators and US House of Representatives, in case anyone missed it on the CRA website......

https://cigarrights.capwiz.com/cigarrights//issues/alert/?alertID=75262626

SLCarrico

I don't know about letters. That's too mature and civilized.
I think we should organize a bunch of people to get dressed up as big smoking cigars and head down to the White House, cuss, yell, scream, read profane poetry, and start some riots.
Just an idea.

PappyJoe

@slcarrico - I'm with you. We can all carry signs that say "Not My FDA" or "FDA Go Away"

SLCarrico

Then we'll see how they like A Day Without Pipe Smokers

Woodsman

We can always show what other person pulled the same anti-smoking tactics.