State governments can't regulate the trucking industry, even to stop minors from ordering cigarettes online, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in an unanimous decision.
In an attempt to stop kids from skirting laws against the sale of tobacco to minors by ordering cigarettes over the Web, Maine passed a law that barred anyone other than a state-licensed tobacco retailer from accepting delivery of cigarettes. In addition, retailers had to use a delivery service that verifies that the addressee is the actual purchaser, is of legal age to purchase tobacco, is the person who signs for delivery, and matches a photo ID if under the age of 27.
A second section defined rules for how a transporter would know if a product contains tobacco. A person is deemed to know, the statute said, if the package is marked as tobacco and contains the license number of a licensed retailer or if the sender's name is on the state attorney general's list of unlicensed retailers.
Source: CIO Today, http://www.cio-today.com