Judge Halts Nurse Bloomberg's Soda Ban

@gabriel_malor notes that the decision is from the "New York Supreme Court," but remember, New York names its courts oddly; the "Supreme Court" is the lowest-level court. (The highest level court, analagous to the US Supreme Court, is the Court of Appeals.)

But still a nice thing.

The regulations are "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences," the judge wrote. "The simple reading of the rule leads to the earlier acknowledged uneven enforcement even within a particular city block, much less the city as a whole….the loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the state purpose of the rule."

If this is the suit noted by the next article (which I'm 99% sure it is), then the action to enjoin was brought by the American Beverage Association and a local Korean grocer.

Starbucks will continue selling sugary coffee drinks under the "half milk" loophole, a special little loophole created by Bloomberg and his minions to make sure that the Crusading Liberal White People who support this ban are actually not affected by this ban. If Starbucks had been included in the ban, the shrieking from Bloomberg's Crusading Liberal White People supporters would have been deafening, and the thing would have been killed.

So they made certain that the ban didn't apply to White People's Big Gulps, even though they contain nearly as much sugar and much more caffeine than Other People's Big Gulps.

For example, Lattes are exempt because they’re more than half milk and it’s OK for customers to fill their own cups of large coffee with all the sugar they want.

Starbucks announced it plans to continue offering 20 ounce venti-sized drinks because of the milk content. Like Dunkin’ Donuts, customers will also be able to add their own sugar to their coffee.

Note to Bloomberg: Milk itself is full of sugar.

Below, for no good reason except it's funny, Paul Rudd questions Starbucks' size-naming conventions.

posted by Ace at 03:40 PM

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