British American Tobacco (BTI) and other cigarette companies were thwarted Monday when the US Supreme Court, without comment, declined to take up the company's appeal of a lower court decision siding with the US Food and Drug Administration and its plans requiring cigarette packaging and advertising to include larger and more explicit health warnings.

The FDA proposal would require the top half of cigarette packages to carry warnings about the health risks of smoking on both the front and back and would also expand the size of the warnings on the companies' print advertising. The rule was overturned on First Amendment grounds at the trial court level but reinstated by the US Court of Appeals' fifth circuit, which concluded the package warnings were "purely factual and uncontroversial" and thus fell within the agency's rule-making authority.

Rival cigarette-maker Altria Group (MO) had also signed on with an amicus filing supporting the British American legal challenge. The companies did not immediately respond to a request from MT Newswires seeking comment.

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