Washington County, Oregon banned the sale of all flavored tobacco and synthetic nicotine products via a county ordinance. 

A group of tobacco retailers sued, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The retailers argued that Oregon's statewide tobacco retail licensing law superseded the county's ban. The retailers claimed that because the state licensed them to sell tobacco, the county could not regulate what tobacco they could or could not sell. 

At trial, the court permanently enjoined Washington County from enforcing the ban. The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s decision.

The Oregon Supreme Court, en banc, affirmed the Court of Appeal decision and unanimously upheld the ban. The court held that a state license to sell a category of products did not automatically confer the right to sell all products, and that the statewide retail licensing law did not explicitly strip local governments of their authority to regulate tobacco sales on public health grounds. Further, the Ordinance did not deprive the retailers of all value of their licenses.

Since retailers could comply with both laws simply by not selling flavored products in Washington County, the two laws were not in conflict — and since the state never unambiguously expressed that it intended to be the only regulator in this space, the county's ban stood.