Perhaps in response to the Department of Justice threatening to go over his head to the Count of Appeals, Texas Trump Judge J. Campbell Barker who has been sitting on the FDA’s Congressionally-mandated cigarette pack graphic warnings for years has announced the he expects to rule on the industry’s challenge to the warning labels by December 6, 2022. In the process, he delayed the effective date another month, to November 6, 2023.
Congress directed FDA to issue these warnings by 2010 when it passed the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
He is widely expected to side with industry and strike down the warning labels , but at least the long appeals process can finally start.
This is a remarkable abuse of judicial discretion.
Stanton Glantz blog 