FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CIV
SEPTEMBER 25, 1998
(202) 514-2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TDD (202) 514-1888
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today filed a petition seeking a rehearing before the entire Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. Food and Drug Administration.
In a split decision in August, the appellate court overturned a lower court's decision that had upheld the FDA's jurisdiction to issue regulations limiting minors' access to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco and restricting the advertising of such products.
Today's petition contends that the appellate court improperly undertook its own independent analysis of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Instead, the petition asserts, courts should pay deference to an agency's interpretation of the statute that Congress has directed it to administer. In addition, the petition stresses that Congress intentionally defined "drug" and "device" broadly, without specifying any particular products for inclusion, and gave FDA the flexibility to determine, on the basis of its own expert judgment, whether both new products and old ones for which new information becomes available fall within the scope of its regulatory authority.
###
98-443
**Copies of the petition are available in the Office of Public Affairs.