Friday April 19th: The federal district court for the Southern District of New York denied a preliminary injunction seeking to halt enforcement of New York’s restriction on the sale of dietary aids and weight loss supplements to persons over the age of 18. In Council for Responsible Nutrition v. James, the plaintiffs, a consortium of dietary supplement companies, argued that the restriction infringed their First Amendment commercial Free Speech rights. However, the court held that the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing a likelihood of success on the merits because a categorical ban on sale of weight loss supplements to those under 18 fell squarely within the state’s traditional police powers to promote the public health and did not implicate First Amendment Free Speech protections.
Thursday April 25th: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld in part and overturned in part a lower court’s dismissal of a challenge to a New York school district’s mask mandate for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Doe v. Franklin Square Union Free School District, the plaintiff child claimed that her asthma prevented her from wearing a mask at school. After the school district denied her medical exemption, plaintiff’s parent brought suit on her behalf alleging that the school violated both her Fourteenth Amendment Due Process rights in denying the exemption, as well as her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The lower court held, and the Second Circuit affirmed, that the Due Process claim failed because mask mandates do not infringe a fundamental constitutional right. However, the Second Circuit overturned the lower court regarding the ADA and § 504 claims explaining that plaintiff was not required to exhaust her claims under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) before seeking damages under the ADA.