If you have travel plans to New York City coming up, good news! It appears that you will still be able to buy
a large soft drink while eating out.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration had famously banned “sugary”
drinks larger than 16 ounces from being served in restaurants, street vendors,
and other venues within the city. With
20 oz or larger drinks being the norm for most restaurants, this was setting up
to be a major problem for consumers and businesses. However, the state court declared that such a
ban on large drinks was “arbitrary and capricious” and ruled that the city was
permanently restrained from implementing or enforcing the regulation on drink
sizes.
The bottom
line is, the judge reasoned that, along with this regulation being difficult to
uniformly enforce, the administration’s unelected
Board of Health was tasked with issuing regulations to help deal with the imminent threat of disease – and that soft drinks, and the effects they can
have on health, didn’t fit the bill. And
as soft drink loving citizens all over the country have been arguing since this
foolishness came to light, if such a ridiculous regulation is to be the law, it
at least should come from the legislature…so that the will of the people has at
least a chance of being considered. And
maybe so that the lawmakers can be voted out in the next election.
