Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 228

529US1

Unit: $U36

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 120 (2000)

153

Opinion of the Court

requires expansion, that is the job of Congress.” Action on
In 1980,
Smoking and Health v. Harris, 655 F. 2d, at 243.
the FDA also denied a request by ASH to commence rule-
making proceedings to establish the agency’s jurisdiction to
regulate cigarettes as devices. See Letter to ASH Execu-
tive Director Banzhaf from FDA Comm’r Goyan (Nov. 25,
1980), App. 50–51. The agency stated that “[i]nsofar as
rulemaking would relate to cigarettes or attached ﬁlters as
customarily marketed, we have concluded that FDA has no
jurisdiction under section 201(h) of the Act [21 U. S. C.
§ 321(h)].”

Id., at 67.

In 1983, Congress again considered legislation on the
subject of smoking and health. HHS Assistant Secretary
Brandt testiﬁed that, in addition to being “a major cause of
cancer,” smoking is a “major cause of heart disease” and
other serious illnesses, and can result in “unfavorable preg-
nancy outcomes.” 1983 House Hearings 19–20. He also
stated that it was “well-established that cigarette smok-
ing is a drug dependence, and that smoking is addictive for
many people.”
Id., at 20. Nonetheless, Assistant Secre-
tary Brandt maintained that “the issue of regulation of
tobacco . . . is something that Congress has reserved to itself,
and we do not within the Department have the authority to
regulate nor are we seeking such authority.”
Id., at 74. He
also testiﬁed before the Senate, stating that, despite the evi-
dence of tobacco’s health effects and addictiveness, the De-
partment’s view was that “Congress has assumed the respon-
sibility of regulating . . . cigarettes.” Smoking Prevention
and Education Act: Hearings on S. 772 before the Senate
Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 98th Cong., 1st
Sess., 56 (1983) (hereinafter 1983 Senate Hearings).

Against this backdrop, Congress enacted three additional
tobacco-speciﬁc statutes over the next four years that incre-
mentally expanded its regulatory scheme for tobacco prod-
ucts.
In 1983, Congress adopted the Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Amendments, Pub. L. 98–24, 97 Stat. 175 (codiﬁed at