By Emily Green
SF Gate
The American Beverage Association sued the city of San Francisco, claiming new legislation requiring health warning labels on sugary beverages and prohibiting advertisements of them on city property violates the First Amendment.
“The city is free to try to persuade consumers to share its opinions about sugar-sweetened beverages,” the lawsuit says. “Instead, the city is trying to ensure that there is no free marketplace of ideas, but instead only a government-imposed, one-sided public ‘dialogue’ on the topic — in violation of the First Amendment.”
The legislation, unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors in June, imposes some of the strongest laws in the country related to sugary beverages.
Read full coverage here.