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BROOKLINE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A first-of-its-kind bylaw banning tobacco sales in Brookline to anyone born in the 21st century will remain in place, the state's highest court ruled Friday.
The ordinance, otherwise known as the Tobacco-Free Generation Law, was adopted by Brookline Town Meeting voters in 2021 and went into effect the following year. The rule bans anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2000 from purchasing tobacco products in Brookline regardless of age.
The bylaw made Brookline the first municipality in the United States to implement a 21st century tobacco ban.
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In a September 2021 lawsuit called "Six Brothers Inc. vs. Town of Brookline," store owners argued the town's bylaw was unconstitutional and preempted Massachusetts law that set the statewide minimum legal age to buy tobacco at 21.
The Massachusetts Superior Court ruled to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022.
On Friday, the state's Supreme Judicial Court upheld the lower court's decision to dismiss, saying the bylaw is similar to other local laws limiting or banning the sale of tobacco products to minors and is not otherwise inconsistent, contract or conflicting with the minimum age standard.
"The retailers maintain that the bylaw is not compatible with the Statewide minimum age standard because it sets a different standard," Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote in the SJC's 33-page unanimous decision. "Certainly, the retailers are correct insofar as if a local law permitted sales of tobacco products to persons under the Statewide minimum age of twenty-one, it would be incompatible with, and in opposition to, the Statewide standard. Of course, the bylaw does no such thing. Instead, the bylaw leaves untouched the Statewide prohibition on sales to persons under the age of twenty-one and augments the prohibition to extend to all persons [born after Jan. 1, 2000.]"
Wendlandt wrote the bylaw is also "a rational alternative to an immediate and outright ban on sales of all tobacco products" and "provides sellers time to adjust to revenue losses that stem from shrinking tobacco product sales."
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