Second Circuit upholds New York’s ban on selling weight-loss supplements to minors

MANHATTAN (CN) — The Second Circuit has endorsed a New York ban on the sale of weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors, ruling against a health supplement trade association that claimed the law was unconstitutional.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which lobbies on behalf of more than 180 supplement companies like Nestlé Health Science and Nature’s Way Brands, filed suit on the basis that the law infringes on the companies’ First Amendment rights. But the federal appeals court found otherwise on Thursday.

“It does not,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Myrna Perez for a three-judge panel.

The Joe Biden appointee wrote that, contrary to the council’s arguments, the state has a substantial interest in protecting public health. And the ban on selling these supplements to minors falls within that objective, Perez found, not merely kneecapping the supplements’ ability to effectively advertise as the council claimed.

“The state’s asserted interest here is not in restricting the flow of information to consumers, but in protecting the health of minors,” Perez wrote, adding, “CRN does not dispute — nor could it reasonably — that the interest in protecting the health of minors is, at a minimum, substantial.”

Perez was joined in her 32-page ruling by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, a Barack Obama appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, a Joe Biden appointee. The three judges expressed some skepticism about the council’s arguments during a hearing in January.

Chin noted during those arguments that, if the ban infringes on the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights at all, it “seems like a relatively modest one because they can still speak — they just have to limit the sales to those 18 and above.”

The judges echoed that same sentiment in their written ruling Thursday, finding that the council “has failed to demonstrate that the law affects its own expression.”

Numerous public health and eating disorder advocacy groups — including the National Eating Disorders Association and Be Real USA — have come out against the council’s case and filed an amicus brief in support of the law.

“Well-established medical science has found that weight-loss and muscle building supplements have no demonstrated health benefit,” the groups say in their 37-page filing. “To the contrary, they have been linked to numerous negative health effects, including short- and long-term health complications, increased hospitalizations and death. These supplements may also contain prohibited or adulterated ingredients that can lead to additional adverse health effects.”

The circuit judges acknowledged these health concerns in their Thursday ruling.

“While CRN takes issue with some studies linking supplement use to eating disorders, it does not justify why that would discredit the broader body of evidence demonstrating other health risks,” they found.

The council’s case went to the Second Circuit after a lower court ruled against it in 2024. U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr., an Obama-appointed federal judge out of the Southern District of New York, denied the council’s request for a preliminary injunction, finding that its bid was “not in the public interest.”

“We cannot say that the district court’s assessment of the public interest in this case was an abuse of discretion,” the Second Circuit ruled.

A spokesperson for the council didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Enacted last year, the New York business law states that dietary supplements “labeled, marketed or otherwise represented for the purpose of achieving weight-loss or muscle building” cannot be sold to minors.

State legislators based the restriction on longstanding age limits for alcohol and tobacco amid concerns that the danger of weight-loss products was being underscored by young consumers.

“The law that we crafted reflects the lack of regulation from the FDA and the lack of regulation in the industry,” Jensen Jose, a regulatory counsel member with the Center for Science in the Public Interest who worked on the legislation, told the Associated Press in 2024.

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