A unanimous California Supreme Court has ruled that federal law trumps state provisions when it comes to cigarette marketing allegedly targeting children.

The court let stand two lower court rulings tossing out a long-running class action lawsuit filed by smokers in 1998 who said they took up the habit as minors because of the companies' marketing. The suit said tobacco companies were placing ads in youth-oriented publications, in video arcades, and near schools and playgrounds and accused the firms of sponsoring youth-oriented sporting events and concerts, and of paying to have their products shown in movies aimed at young people.
The central issue in the case was whether a 1969 federal cigarette labelling law, which prohibited state regulation of tobacco ads based on concerns about smoking and health, allowed states to regulate youth-oriented cigarette ads.
The California Supreme Court followed a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which established that "concerns about youth smoking are inherently intertwined with, and cannot validly be distinguished from, concerns about smoking and health."
Because the plaintiffs failed to present evidence that the advertisements were misleading and targeted exclusively to children, federal cigarette labelling laws and the companies' 1st Amendment rights to commercial speech allow the marketing campaigns.