Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling has struck a victory for sanity (as well as individual choice) in striking down New York Mayor Bloomberg’s widely ridiculed ban on large sugary drinks. As we previously discussed, the law was a poorly drafted and poorly conceived ban that allowed a host of higher caloric drinks to be sold in bars and other establishments. Tingling found the law to be “arbitrary and capricious.” Bloomberg has appeared to have developed an insatiable appetite to dictating what others can eat, including a proposed crackdown on popcorn and milk. After the soda ban, a long list of items have been put forward to Bloomberg to ban before Judge Tingling put a halt to the feeding frenzy.
Tingling focused on the obvious “loopholes” in the law that barred sales for some establishments while allowed the drinks to be sold by other establishments “even within a particular City block, much less the City as a whole.” The judge also found that the law created a an administrative Leviathan and violate the separation of powers doctrine” by sweeping into areas of legislative authority with the city council.
As we discussed earlier, I have no problem with banning sodas in school as many district have done. However, Bloomberg has decided that educational programs and warnings are not enough because adults are not meeting the expectations of the government. Bloomberg is quoted as saying “I look across this country, and people are obese, and everybody wrings their hands, and nobody’s willing to do something about it.” The solution therefore is to take away choice and to dictate Dr. Bloomberg’s diet for all citizens.
Bloomberg insisted that when you are told that you cannot have that soda, “Nobody is taking away any of your rights. This way, we’re just telling you ‘That’s a lot of soda.’” Really? Sounds a lot like “you can’t have that soda.”
Honestly, if prohibition did not work for alcohol, it is likely to be even less successful for sodas. Then there are those other items like french fries, onion rings, and other unhealthy foods eaten in excessive quantities. How about requiring proof that a large stuffed pizza has no fewer than four persons willing to sign for it? I think people have a right to an unhealthy lifestyle. This is not like second-hand smoke that harms others. You can be around someone with a large soda and remain perfectly healthy. Then there are those high calorie alcoholic drinks being served with the loaded stuffed potatoes in bars around New York.
After the ruling, Bloomberg insisted “I’ve got to defend my children, and yours, and do what’s right to save lives.” Sixty percent of New Yorkers opposed the limit and clearly believe that they do not need Bloomberg making choices for them or their families. However, most parents feel that they can defend their own children and make choices for them. Moreover, Bloomberg did not ban sodas for school children, he dictated what adults can drink. The ban was facially absurd from the start since it would only force customers to buy multiple drinks if they wanted the same amount. Then there was the confusion of the lines of exemptions. The ban did not apply to pure fruit juice or fruit smoothies or drinks that are more than half milk. Starbucks yesterday vowed to continue to serve sweetened coffee drinks before the ruling, causing an outburst by Bloomberg.
Undeterred, Bloomberg has decided to spend more money in fighting the ruling and affirm his right to control the diets of people in the city. He rejects the widespread objections over individual choice and insists that New Yorkers must be required to comply with the dietary demands of his government. However, that Tingling feeling yesterday was the voice of reason.
Source: WSJ
Elaine,
That I can understand… There are places where some folks will go out of the way to be offensive…. Such as crossing the street to complain that you’re smoking …. There is a balance and it is some place…. I don’t go to bars to complain about someone drinking…. But there are some that will…
AY,
I’m no closet smoker–nor am I a reformed smoker. I lived much of my adulthood having to deal with the offensive smoke of cigarettes–in restaurants, on airplanes, at parties, and at work. It seemed that one of the only places that I could get away from secondhand smoke was in my own home. I can’t tell you the number of times a smoker would look at me and ask: “Do you mind if I smoke?” When I replied “yes,” it usually didn’t matter. They’d light up anyway. I guess they assumed that I’d say “no.”
SWM, Plenty of Mexican Coke in Madison and San Diego. I don’t drink sugared drinks but folks do say it tastes like the drink of our youth.
Hey, I favor non smoking establishments….. But, if someone want to light up outside and the wind is not still…. Do I have a right to complain….. Some of the biggest hypocrites are the closet smokers…. And the reformed….
Bron,
Workers in establishments that allow smoking would have to inhale the foul fumes.
Bron,
Do you think minorities have the right to fill the air that non-smokers breathe with carcinogens? No one is preventing smokers from smoking outside the restaurants, in their cars, in their homes, outdoors. Do you think people should be allowed to smoke on airplanes…in buses…in hospitals…in public buildings?
Bron,
Don’t non-smokers have the right to a smoke free environment when they are out in public? Why should I have to inhale a smokers carcinogens just because I want to go out for dinner? They can smoke in their own homes and cars if they want to smoke. If someone wants to commit suicide, they don’t have the right to take me with them.
Elaine:
because minorities have rights too.
What should happen is for establishments to control smoking by patrons, the government should have no say. If 80% of the people dont smoke then a restaurant owner would be stupid to allow smoking in his place.
Or he can post that he accepts smokers and then you have the right to not eat there.
Secondhand smoke is a known carcinogen. I’m glad that I can now enjoy dining out in a restaurant or flying on an airplane without having to inhale the unhealthful fumes of smokers. I read on the CDC site that approximately 20% of adults in America are smokers. Why should 80% of us have to suffer because smokers want to smoke in eating establishments?
Mike,
I prefer the smoke-free environments but government had no business placing a coercive legal enforcement on private businesses in this matter … private businesses should have been allowed to choose the road they wished to travel as their customers would also.
“I prefer the smoke-free environments but government had no business placing a coercive legal enforcement on private businesses in this matter … private businesses”
Blouise,
I agree and I smoked for all told about 40 years. Cigarette now disgust me, but give my own struggles with it I can’t feel superior to smokers. I’ve hung out in a lot of drinking places in my time and back when I smoked I couldn’t conceive of not being allowed to smoke in a bar. Having worked with addictions and my own with smoking, I think cigarettes rank among the worst.
What a waste of time and money. I always suspected this was really a boondoggle designed to generate more sales tax by requiring soda junkies to purchase soda more often albeit in smaller amounts.
There is nothing arbitrary nor capricious about Bloomberg’s laws about what kind of beveridges can be served in New York. Every one of Bloomberg’s ideas are very carefully conceived and are always designed to protect our health. Bloomberg know best what we should eat and drink and we must follow his orders. I am anxiously awaiting Bloomberg’s book on Foods, Diets, and Recipes so that I may follow his guidance to the letter. Such important matters should not be left to individual discretion. We must rely on Bloomberg to do the right thing. However, I do wonder what I will do when Bloomberg retires. How will I know then what I should eat or drink?
SwM,
As you know, I had difficulty finding Mexican coke up here but then found it is also marketed as kosher coke (Coke bottles that are marked as ‘kosher for passover’).
However, I found an excellent cola syrup flavoring for my Soda-stream that is made with cane sugar and tastes exactly like the soda fountain cokes I remember from my youth. It took a few experiments to get the proportions right but I persevered and have happily not purchased coca-cola for months now. Arizona Old Fashioned Fountain Syrup
SwM,
When I wrote angels I was referencing philosophers (Locke, Kant etc), not corporations
Swarthmore: There is some recent study on the satiety induced by different kinds of sugars, and as it turns out, fructose is rather poor at inducing satiety on a per calorie basis. Meaning, if takes about 500 calories of pure fructose to feel as satisfied as 200 calories of pure glucose. (Table sugar is 50% of each).
So contrary to the lying television commercials that claim “sugar is sugar,” people generally consume until they feel satiated, and it takes more calories to feel that way if high-fructose corn syrup is in the mix, which (in addition to sedentary lifestyles) may be a contributor to the obesity problem in high-tech countries.
One size does not always fit all: For example if you have a construction worker performing roofing work in the summer time – these workers sweat all day and need to replace those salts and electrolytes – for this group it is “unhealthy” if they don’t replace it with a drink that would be banned under this prohibition. The opposite may be true for an office worker. Age, metabolism, physical activity, etc all factor into the equation. Bloomberg could force employers to require physical exercise on the employers’ time!
One has the freedom to choose to go outside a restaurant or bar and smoke…or to postpone smoking until one has left the restaurant or bar.
A friend of ours owned a popular restaurant in Salem, MA. He was concerned that he might lose customers when the smoking ban went into effect years ago. He told my husband that the opposite happened. His business increased as more non-smokers came to his restaurant or extended their dining experience or sat at the bar and ate and/or drank.
The one exception to smoking in one’s own home is children or other dependent persons who are harmed but have little choice.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-huehnergarth/minorities-soda-lobby_b_2541121.html How big soda co-opted the NAACP and the National Hispanic Federation.
Darren, Thanks. I can get the Mexican cokes locally. I live close to Mexico, you know. Can’t drink too many of them because of the calories but I will take real sugar any day over the much cheaper high fructose corn syrup. Corporations are pushing it because it is cheap and profitable.