Thursday, February 21 2008
By Richard Pereleman
CigarCyclopedia.com
The state of Maine said it was worried about underage purchases of tobacco products – primarily cigarettes – so it enacted a law five years ago that required delivery firms such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service to only deliver tobacco products shipped by retailers licensed by the state. Moreover, the carrier was allowed to release them only to the addressee and that person had to show identification to prove they were of legal age.
For that reason, some mail-order and Internet-based cigar merchants simply stopped shipping to Maine. That all changed on Wednesday.
In a rare unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a lower court holding that the federal statutes controlling interstate commerce nationwide trump Maine’s individual law on the shipment of tobacco products.
Story continues at Cigarcyclopedia.com...
