In a landmark decision, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has endorsed the town of Brookline's ban on tobacco sales to anyone born in the 21st century, a regulation that is making waves across the state and beyond. Last Friday, the SJC upheld the town's bylaw, confirming that the contentious prohibition is, in fact, within legal bounds.
The case in question, dubbed "Six Brothers Inc. vs Brookline," saw a cohort of local store owners challenge the bylaw as unconstitutional, and in direct conflict with a 2018 state law that upped the legal tobacco buying age from 18 to 21. Yet, their arguments were rebuffed by the state’s highest court. In an opinion obtained by Boston 25 News, Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote, "The bylaw is rationally related to a legitimate government interest."
Born from a historic decision in 2020, Brookline's bylaw officially took effect in August 2021, with enforcement following in September. It represents an unprecedented crackdown on tobacco accessibility for the younger generations, effectively creating a generational dividing line for the legal purchase of such products within the town's limits.
In her decision, Wendlandt added, "The bylaw also is a rational alternative to an immediate and outright ban on sales of all tobacco products, preserving in-town sales to those in group one who may already suffer from addiction." According to a report by WCVB, the justice also noted that the bylaw is "an incremental prohibition on the sale of tobacco products in the town." While merchants argued that the bylaw set an arbitrary cutoff date, the SJC found that using the birth year of 2000 as a dividing line was defensible in the aim of reducing tobacco use, particularly among minors.
The ruling reaffirms the state's storied history of local communities regulating tobacco in efforts to combat its adverse health impacts. It also sets a precedent for how far municipalities can go in imposing restrictions that surpass those enacted at the state level, potentially signalling a new era of local health governance.
