United States

Tobacco manufacturers challenged the constitutionality of a state law requiring tobacco companies to provide the state with ingredient lists, organized by relative amounts, for all cigarettes, snuffs, and chewing tobaccos sold within the state, which would then be subject to public disclosure if the disclosure could potentially reduce risks to public health. The Court held that the law constituted an unconstitutional taking of property, finding that public disclosure of ingredients lists of the kind contemplated would expose the tobacco companies' trade secrets, compromising the reasonable investment-backed expectations of tobacco manufacturers in a manner likely to have severe economic consequences for the companies. The Court noted that, though the state's stated purpose of protecting public health may have been compelling, the law was not sufficiently tailored to promote this goal and any speculative gains were outweighed by the enormous costs that accompany loss of trade secrets. Additionally, the Court held that, because Massachusetts offered no substantial benefit to tobacco companies in exchange for voluntary disclosure of the lists, the state could not require an unconstitutional disclosure of trade secrets as a precondition to selling a legal product within the state.