A Spokane Judge Blows Smoke Through Washington’s Cigarette Ban
The state’s new cigarette prohibition was unconstitutional, Judge Sullivan ruled, because a law titled as regulation could not impose outright prohibition.
Judge Sullivan of Spokane has ruled that the cigarette prohibition law passed by the last legislature is unconstitutional, because where the title of an act provides for regulation merely, the legislature, by the force of constitutional limitations, is prohibited from enacting an absolute prohibition of the evil complained of.
“Where the title of an act provides for regulation merely, the legislature ... is prohibited from enacting an absolute prohibition of the evil complained of.”
The ruling turned on a legal technicality—how a law is titled and what power the legislature actually claimed—but it decided whether a public-health ban could stand. Modern tobacco and vaping rules still face the same question: how far can government go when it frames a prohibition as regulation?
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