Food and Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. case brief

Food and Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. case brief summary
529 U.S. 120 (2000)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioner, the United States Government, sought writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which reversed a decision of the district court and held that Congress had not granted the Federal Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products.

ISSUE
Can the FDA regulate tobacco products?

CASE FACTS

• In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a rule which prohibited the marketing of tobacco products to young people. 
• The FDA claimed it had authority to regulate tobacco products because they were drugs within the meaning of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). 
• This position was a change from the FDA’s prior position that it did not have jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products. 
• Tobacco companies challenged the rule on grounds that the structure and history of the FDCA did not permit the FDA to regulate tobacco products.

DISCUSSION

• The court affirmed the decision of the court below, which held that Congress had not granted the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products. 
• The court stated that, considering the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (Act), 21 U.S.C.S. § 301 et seq., as a whole, it was clear that Congress intended to exclude tobacco products from the FDA's jurisdiction. 
• If tobacco products were within the FDA's jurisdiction, the Act would require the FDA to remove them from the market entirely. 
• Such a ban would contradict Congress' clear intent as expressed in recent tobacco-specific legislation. 
• Thus, there existed no room for tobacco products within the Act's regulatory scheme. 
• Given the history and the breadth of the authority that the FDA had asserted, the court was obliged to defer not to the agency's expansive construction of the statute, but Congress' consistent judgment to deny the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. 
• Therefore, the court affirmed the decision of the court below.

OUTCOME

The court affirmed the decision of the court below, which held that Congress had not granted the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products, on the grounds that, considering the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as a whole, it was clear that Congress intended to exclude tobacco products from the FDA's jurisdiction.

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