The U.S. Supreme Court says it will rule this year on whether city and state bans on outdoor tobacco advertising represent an infringement of free speech.
    The court has agreed to hear the tobacco industry’s appeal in Lorillard Tobacco Co. vs. Thomas Reilly, attorney general of Massachusetts. The case stems from a 1998 ban prohibiting billboards or other tobacco advertising within 1,000 yards of a school or playground.
    Ordinances of this sort restricting ads for cigarettes and beer have been adopted by city governments across the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. The court’s ruling, which is expected by summer, will decide the fate of such attempts to limit exposure by minors to "sin" advertising. 
    It will also have major ramifications for advertisers and media buyers who work with outdoor ads.
    The court will hear oral arguments in April, at which time the tobacco industry will try to demonstrate that bans such as the one in Massachusetts severely impair the ability of cigarette makers to market their products to adults. Tobacco lawyers have said that the ad-free zones include areas in and around convenience stores, especially in urban locales like Boston, where more than 90 percent of the city is within 1,000 yards of a school or park.
    Previous rulings by the Supreme Court suggest that it may be sympathetic to the arguments of the tobacco industry. Last year, the court slapped down the attempt by the Clinton Administration to regulate tobacco as a drug through the Food and Drug Administration. In 1996, the court reversed a Rhode Island law that made it illegal to advertise beer prices.
    In that case, the majority reasoned that First Amendment protection must extend equally to "commercial speech," and that no "vice exception" could be permitted.
    But this time around, the court may choose to back the tobacco industry without making a First Amendment issue of it. It could do that by ruling that the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, a 1965 law that bans states from regulating tobacco ads, applies in this case. State and city lawyers contend that this law applies only to the labeling on cigarette packs, not to outdoor ads.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

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