Bloomberg's Soda Ban Is All But Dead After NY Appeals Court Ruling

Judges called the ban unconstitutional.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushed the law as a way to combat obesity, but the appeals court said it was an overreach of executive power. The law would have banned sodas and other sugary drinks bigger than 16 ounces.

The court's decision was unanimous, but Bloomberg can still appeal to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. This decision came from a lower appellate division court.

In March, a judge blocked the sugary drink regulation the day before it was supposed to go into effect. Bloomberg was not happy, and said the decision was "clearly an error."

At the time, a New York Supreme Court judge wrote that Bloomberg's new sugary drink regulations are "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences," because they apply to some drinks and restaurants/stores but not others.

The law was highly controversial when Bloomberg first introduced it, and movie theaters (some of which sell 50 ounce soda drinks) threatened to sue.