October
18, 2019
By Kileen Lindgren
Imagine you ran a small business, and the government suddenly changed the rules to put you out of business virtually overnight. Whom would you call? Did you know there’s a network to connect freedom-loving attorneys with individuals and small-business owners who need help fighting against government overreach? There is, and it works.
Yesterday, an Oregon State Court of
Appeals commissioner issued a decision
granting immediate and temporary stay of the Oregon Health Authority’s recently
adopted rule,
based on Oregon Governor Brown’s executive
order, that temporarily banned the sale of
most vaping products in the state. This decision comes in response to the
efforts of attorney Ryan Adams, a member of the Goldwater Institute’s pro bono
program, American
Freedom Network, who filed a petition
for judicial review of the rule on October 16, 2019. Adams represents
entrepreneur Paul Bates and his business, Division Vapor.
Like 4,000 other retailers in the
state, Mr. Bates faced the imminent loss of his livelihood under the new rule. Thursday’s
decision means he will be able to keep the lights on, at least until the court
renders a final decision in the case.
Similar preliminary victories have
occurred this month in New
York and Michigan.
These decisions demonstrate the severity of this issue—government cannot
arbitrarily prevent businesses from selling legal products or abuse its power
of executive order by playing reactionary politics. Advocates for vape bans
claim that they will protect children; however, minors are not even allowed
into Mr. Bates’ business, and they are not allowed to purchase vaping products.
Banning the business of law-abiding
retailers puts a bandage where there is no injury. Thanks to the American
Freedom Network, hardworking business owners in Oregon will be able to continue
to work and meet the needs of their customers, while litigation moves forward.
Mr. Bates is also a client of the
Goldwater Institute, which represents him and Division Vapor in a First
Amendment challenge to Oregon’s restriction on honest advertising of vaping
products. In the free speech case, Mr. Bates seeks a declaration that it is unconstitutional to require
vape shops to censor labels that accurately describe vaping liquids and prevent
vape shops from displaying those products in a way that is attractive to adult customers. (Read
more about the lawsuit here.)
Every
business has a right to provide customers with accurate information about the
products the business is legally allowed to sell. Freedom of speech doesn’t
just help businesses succeed—it also ensures that customers get the information
that they need to make wise choices. Yet Oregon has been censoring truthful
information about legal vaping products by prohibiting retailers from putting
pictures of items that it deems “likely to appeal to minors”—like apples,
strawberries, and oranges—or even those very words—on
their product labels. This censorship harms Oregon consumers and violates the
constitutional rights of responsible entrepreneurs.
American
Freedom Network attorneys have assisted in both of Mr. Bates’ cases, and with a
third free
speech lawsuit challenging Oregon’s mandatory bar association for
attorneys. And the Goldwater Institute is leading the
charge to defend attorneys’ rights in other states around the country,
including Louisiana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma. We are committed to advancing freedom and defending
individual rights in Oregon, and we are privileged to work with liberty-minded
litigators in this state.
If you are an attorney and
would like to learn more about litigating for liberty through the American
Freedom Network, please visit this page or contact Kileen Lindgren at klindgren@goldwaterinstitute.org.
Kileen
Lindgren is the Legal Programs Manager at the Goldwater Institute.
