Big Tobacco came away with a win in August when a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that cigarette packaging shouldn’t be required to feature graphic health warnings about the dangers of smoking. But the Food and Drug Administration seems to be on a team with the Justice Department, as the latter agency is asking for a full appeals court to reconsider that idea.

The tobacco companies complained that the FDA’s mandate that cigarette packaging must have warnings to consumers that showed some consequences of smoking were too graphic and went beyond factual information, and instead were examples of anti-smoking advocacy.

But the government sees those photos of diseased, dead or dying smokers as factual and what could happen to those who light up.

It’s rare for the federal appeals court to grant an appeal like the petition filed by the DOJ, reports the Associated Press, so it’ll be interesting to see if it takes this case back for another whirl through the legal system.

We want to know…

Feds seek full court review of graphic cigarette warnings [Associated Press]

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