Just five months after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a trio of regulations on sugar-sweetened beverages, a board committee will consider a proposal to repeal one of them.
On Monday the Land Use Committee will debate ending the city's prohibition on advertising of sugar-sweetened beverages on city property.
As it turns out, the advertising ban has never been enforced. Just days after the supervisors passed the measure, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down an unrelated -- but similar -- effort to limit ads on public property, in the case Reed vs. Town of Gilbert, Arizona.
Shortly after that, the American Beverage Association, an industry group, slapped San Francisco with a lawsuit challenging both the ad ban and another measure requiring warning labels on sugary-beverage ads on First Amendment grounds.
Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced the original legislation -- and the proposed repeal to be considered Monday. "I in no way see this as a setback," she said in an interview with State of Health. She said the City Attorney had reviewed the law after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Reed case and determined San Francisco's law was "probably indefensible."