Anti-smoking Campaign Stopped in NYC

One of the anti-smoking posters in question

In an effort to discourage people from smoking, the city of New York had planned to launch a campaign which would have included the use of anti-smoking posters next to the cash registers in thousands of stores in the city. The posters were to be strategically placed where smokers would make their tobacco purchase, and contained images of discolored teeth, blackened lungs, and other diseased body parts damaged from smoking. 

Tobacco companies and their lawyers filed a law suit to stop the campaign and declare the law that allowed it unconstitutional. The companies cited that the law violated the free speech rights of the shop owners by forcing them to display a message that they may not have agreed with.

A federal judge in the United States District Court in Manhattan agreed with the tobacco companies and the shop owners and has stopped the law. The city plans to appear the ruling and for now at least the ad campaign is on hold.