Ohio’s Flavored Tobacco Sales Ban Paused by Injunction

A new law just days away from going into effect that will prevent cities and towns in Ohio from banning the sale of flavored tobacco products has been on pause thanks to an injunction issued by a Franklin County judge on Friday afternoon.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott issued the injunction, saying that the law violates an amendment to Ohio’s constitution that gives cities home rule to enact their own laws that they deem are in the best interest of their residents. In this case, the cities have argued that flavored tobacco is harmful to residents, particularly teens, which is why they wanted to be able to prevent their sale.

With the injunction, cities will continue to prevent the sale of flavored tobacco products. The lawsuit was brought by 14 cities: Columbus, Bexley, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Heath, Hilliard, Oxford, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Whitehall and Worthington, which argued that they “have the ‘authority to exercise all powers of local self-government and to adopt and enforce within [their] limits such local police, sanitary and other similar regulations, as are not in conflict with general laws.'”

“Basically all (the state law) does is say ‘We are pre-empting the municipalities’ ability to regulate,” Serrott said, according to a report by the Columbus Dispatch. The report said that Serrott noted that the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that for “general laws” to be valid, they are supposed to “prescribe conduct by citizens,” not by cities, which are granted special regulatory rights under the state constitution.

This becomes the latest development in a back-and-forth battle that began in December 2022 when the Columbus City Council introduced a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. The Republican-controlled Ohio legislature was in a special session to deal with other issues but quickly passed a preemption law, which was then vetoed by Gov. Mike DeWine.  The ban was passed by the state’s General Assembly again, this time as part of its budget proposal, then vetoed again by DeWine before the General Assembly voted to override the veto in January.

Serrott has scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for May 17, though the case could drag on for some time should he rule in favor of the cities and the state elect to appeal his ruling.

The ban was scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday, April 23.