Limitations regarding the use of quotes
The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
Plaintiffs, a group of individuals and business owners who operated restaurants in Niagara County, New York, sought to prevent the Niagara County Board of Health (Board) from implementing public smoking regulations that the plaintiffs believed were overly restrictive in comparison to the existing Niagara County Sanitary Code. In particular, the plaintiffs claimed that the Board regulations violated their constitutional right to equal protection, as well as constituted an excessive delegation of executive authority by imposing restrictions based on consideration of issues that went beyond the Board's health expertise. The United States District Court for the Western District of New York found that the equal protection claim lacked merit. However, the Court found that the actions of the Board did exceed executive authority insofar as it made final policy determinations where competing social, economic and political concerns remained unresolved by the Niagara County legislature.