A lawyer for Providence, R.I., urged a federal appeals court on Monday to reject a constitutional challenge to a local ban on redemption of coupons for tobacco products. Tobacco companies remain free to distribute those coupons, he argued, even if residents are not free to redeem them.
“This case is about the tobacco industry’s attempt to circumvent two local ordinances designed to keep tobacco out of the hands of children,” Anthony Cottone, a solo practitioner who represented the city defendants, insisted before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
