Sure enough, last Friday the American Beverage Association and others, represented by Latham & Watkins, sued to block Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages larger than 16 oz at certain NYC vendors. The suit, filed in the NY Supreme Court, asserts that the Mayor bypassed the proper legislative process for governing NYC, instead imposing the ban by executive fiat. The petition cites the many proposals considered and rejected by the NY City Council and NY State Legislature with respect to sugar-sweetened beverage (e.g., excise taxes, restrictions on the use of food stamps, warning labels, and product placement rules) as evidence that the legislature has chosen not to act to restrict sales in this sphere. The petition also claims that the scope of the Dept. of Health (DOH) action here is unprecedented, despite the fact that the DOH banned the use of trans fats in foods and required calorie postings at enumerated food service establishments.
Several specific causes of action are alleged by the soda industry, including:
- that the New York City Charter, in it’s general language, does not delegate the necessary enumerated powers to the DOH to implement such a ban;
- that even if authority to enact the ban has been delegated by the legislative branch to the executive branch, such delegation is unconstitutional as in violation of the separation-of-powers doctrine (i.e., the legislature cannot cede its fundamental policy-making responsibility to an administrative agency); and
- that the ban fails to pass rational basis review given it’s arbitrary features that are unrelated to it’s stated purpose (e.g., cutoff at 16 oz size, exclusion of alcohol, and application to certain food establishments but not grocery or conveniences stores).
The plaintiffs request that the court enjoin and permanently restrain the ban. They also want a decision by Dec. 15, 2012, so that affected businesses can avoid expending funds to comply with the law (set to take effect March 12, 2013). A response from the DOH will be forthcoming before an eagerly awaited court decision. A Cleveland Judge recently sided with the city when it sued the State of Ohio for trying to preempt its regulation of trans fats. Cleveland, the Judge ruled, was within its powers under the State constitution. But this most recent soda ban challenge applies to a different state’s legislative scheme, and a finding in favor of the plaintiffs could render Major Bloomberg’s “War on Fat” via other initiatives also susceptible to challenge.
