Last week, the indispensable Pacific Legal Foundation added the Food and Drug Administration to the long list of alphabet-soup federal agencies it has taken on in court. In three separate lawsuits filed in three districts, PLF is challenging the “Deeming Rule,” a 2016 regulation issued under the Obama FDA that made vaping devices subject to the Tobacco Control Act. (Full disclosure: the lawsuits are spearheaded by former Cato legal associates Tommy Berry and Anastasia Boden, and former Cato legal intern Jonathan Wood.)

The Deeming Rule, to begin with, is terrible policy. It takes an industry that is saving lives by helping people to quit smoking and imposes heavy-handed regulations designed for the much different cigarette industry. Vape shops are typically mom-and-pop operations, not billion-dollar corporations, and submitting every new e-juice creation for costly and time-consuming FDA approval just isn’t feasible.