SBOH's legal counsel briefed on progress of a lawsuit against the agency over their authority to enact an emergency ban on flavored vapor products.
- Lilia Lopez, Assistant Attorney General and counsel for the SBOH, briefed on the lawsuit against state agencies brought by the Vapor Technology Association (VTA). She said that a “written order” upheld the agency's authority to pass an emergency ban on flavored vapor products last October (audio - 7m).
- However, the Thurston County Superior Court judge informed the state appeals court that there was “substantial ground for difference of opinion on a controlling question of law” leaving the door open for an expedited appeal of his ruling.
- VTA appealed the lower court’s ruling and was required to file a brief by Monday January 13th. A response would be due from the SBOH’s attorneys “three weeks after that.”
- Oral arguments in the suit would be in March, after the expiration of flavored vapor products ban in February. Lopez observed that, by that time, the challenge may be “a question of mootness.”