An interesting case concerning the short-lived prohibition of tobacco in North Dakota was argued in the North Dakota Supreme Court on this day in 1913. The case, which pitted the American Tobacco Company against the State of North Dakota, came to be known as the Snuff Case. The American Tobacco Company supported defendant C. J. Olson of Dickinson, charged with violating the state’s anti-tobacco law by selling a brand of plug tobacco called ‘Right Cut’. The law, known as House Bill 67, was passed on February 26, 1913, and prohibited the sale and manufacture of cigarettes, snuff, and snuff substitutes. North Dakota Food Commissioner Edwin Ladd argued that the ‘Right Cut’ was in fact a snuff substitute, and therefore fell under the law’s jurisdiction, but Olson claimed that the product was a form of plug tobacco, the sale of which was not prohibited by the present law. Olson also believed that the law violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights by prohibiting the sale of certain products, but not others.

Olson had been fined and jailed for selling packages of the tobacco in Dickinson. The case was first heard in Stark County district court, where the state’s law was upheld. Olson immediately appealed the case and it was sent on to the State’s Supreme Court. Residents of the state followed the case closely as the first assault on its young anti-tobacco law. Newspapers remarked the similarity between these attacks and the earlier attacks on the state’s prohibition laws. In the end, the court ruled against the Dickinson merchant for a second time and upheld the constitutionality of House Bill 67, citing the government’s regulation of certain products as in the best interest of the state’s health.

Food Commissioner Ladd was pivotal in the state’s victory. Ladd had conducted an analysis of several types of tobacco, snuff, and substitute products and had released the results in a published bulletin that was sent out to residents of the state. The study highlighted the gross similarity between several substitutes and tobacco products, the ingredients of which were found to be nearly identical. The ‘Right Cut’ brand, which had been the cause of such contestation, was reported to contain Copenhagen snuff in its composition. North Dakota’s anti-tobacco laws remained in effect until their repeal in 1925.

-Jayme L. Job

Sources:
Welle, Jennifer R. et. al. Tobacco Control Policy Making in North Dakota: A Tradition in Activism. Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. University of California, San Francisco; 2004.
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). Oct. 7, 1913: p. 2, 7.
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). Oct. 9, 1913: p. 7.

This text and audio may not be copied without securing prior permission from North Dakota Public Radio.