Appeals Court Rules Nanny Bloomberg’s Big Sugary Drink Ban Unconstitutional

by William Teach | July 31, 2013 7:03 am

Could this be the first domino in rolling back Nanny State laws and regulations thanks to judicial precedent, or is that a bit of wishful thinking?

[1]

(Reuters[2]) New York City’s plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries was an illegal overreach of executive power, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday, upholding a lower court decision in March that struck down the law.

The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, “violated the state principle of separation of powers,” the First Department of the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division said in a unanimous decision.

Well, I was hoping more for a “what the hell were you thinking, trying to control the lives of citizens in such a manner!”, but, this is good enough. Not that I plan on rushing into NYC to buy a big sugary drink anytime soon. Or, really, ever. But, it’s nice that the choice is mine, not some government hack acting as a parent or caregiver to the citizens. The ruling is mostly about something like the ban having to go through the legislative process, not the “Mayor gets a burr under his bumm and decides he’ll do something” process.

Mary Katherine Hamm[3] notes

In other words, when the elected legislature is “unwilling to act” in a way an executive or administrative board wishes it would, it’s not all right to “take whatever administrative steps that I can in order to do right by the American people.”

Hmm, that debate sounds familiar….

Obviously, Bloomberg[4] is a bit pissy over this

Since New York City’s ground-breaking limit on the portion size of sugary beverages was prevented from going into effect on March 12th, more than 2,000 New Yorkers have died from the effects of diabetes. Also during that time, the American Medical Association determined that obesity is a disease and the New England Journal of Medicine released a study showing the deadly, and irreversible, health impacts of obesity and Type 2 diabetes — both of which are disproportionately linked to sugary drink consumption. Today’s decision is a temporary setback, and we plan to appeal this decision as we continue the fight against the obesity epidemic.”

Perhaps Mike should be more concerned with crime, pollution, alcoholism, and drugs, but, Big Gulps are obviously more dangerous in his mind.

Neither the NYC city council nor NY State General Assembly was able to pass any sort of law regarding the big sugary drinks, so expect Mike to whine about this for a while. And remember that Obama does the same thing.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[5]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[6].