Public Health versus Private Freedom?
There is widespread agreement that governments ought to prohibit the sale of at least some dangerous products. But it seems odd to hold, as a US court recently did, that the state may prohibit the sale of cigarettes, but may not regulate their packaging as it sees fit to promote public health.
https://prosyn.org/HwzsYfb
PRINCETON – In contrasting decisions last month, a United States Court of Appeals struck down a US Food and Drug Administration requirement that cigarettes be sold in packs with graphic health warnings, while Australia’s highest court upheld a law that goes much further. The Australian law requires not only health warnings and images of the physical damage that smoking causes, but also that the packs themselves be plain, with brand names in small generic type, no logos, and no color other than a drab olive-brown.