Court Date Set for Texas Cigar Industry Lawsuit
The Texas premium cigar industry will get the chance to argue against the FDA’s Final Deeming Rule in court next month after a judge set a court date while also denying the agency’s attempt to transfer the case to Washington, D.C.
Magistrate Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson filed her order yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, setting the court date to hear oral arguments for June 26 at 9:30 a.m. Judge Priest Johnson, who will also be presiding over the case, stated in her order that she bumped up the schedule in the case “in light of the August 10, 2018, effective date of the warning requirements.”
In that same order, Judge Priest Johnson also denied the FDA’s motion to transfer the premium cigar industry lawsuit to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which last week struck down many points in a similar lawsuit filed there. Judge Priest Johnson stated in her order that the issues in the Texas lawsuit “do not substantially overlap” with the issues in the Washington D.C. lawsuit.
The Texas FDA lawsuit is separate from the lawsuit that the cigar industry filed in Washington D.C. in that the Texas lawsuit focuses solely on premium, handmade cigars whereas the D.C. suit included little cigars, machine-made cigars, and pipes.
The lawsuit in Texas was jointly filed in January by a group that includes En Fuego Tobacco Shop, El Cubano Cigars, and the Texas Cigar Merchants Association that represents 43 premium cigar manufacturers, retailers and distributors. In April, the group filed a partial summary judgment seeking preliminary relief from the FDA’s onerous warning requirements.
