New York, NY – Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF-Manhattan), sponsor of the bill A.617, which would require mandatory GMO labeling in New York State, today applauded the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont’s decision not to block implementation of Vermont’s genetic modified organisms (GMO) labeling law, by denying the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association’s (GMA) motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have halted the law’s implementation.

“The Court’s decision represents a tremendous victory for consumers who overwhelmingly demand more transparency from food companies,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, sponsor of bill A.617, which would require mandatory GMO labeling in New York State. “The industry has been using the threat of multimillion-dollar litigation to chill states’ efforts to label GMOs. This decision reinforces the idea that consumers have a legal right to know what is in the food they eat and feed to their families.”

While Connecticut and Maine were the first and second states in the nation, respectively, to pass mandatory GMO labeling into law, both states included a contingency clause preventing the law from taking effect until a number of contiguous states, like New York, do the same. Vermont’s law contained no such contingency clause, and is set to go into effect in July 2016. GMA filed suit in June 2014 claiming that the law was unconstitutional on a variety of grounds, including First Amendment grounds.

Judge Christina Reiss of the District Court disagreed with nearly every argument made by GMA. In her 84-page opinion, Judge Reiss stated that state-required GMO labeling did not compel speech and was not political speech because it simply conveys the existence of a fact. Furthermore, she ruled, if manufacturers were concerned about potential negative connotations associated with labeling, they were free to add contrary language to the label. Reiss also addressed potential Commerce Clause issues by noting that the federal government has historically recognized that states have a fundamental role to play in protecting consumers.

“This decision helps to pave the way for GMO labeling to become law in New York State, and along with it a domino effect of states with contingency clauses,” said Assemblymember Rosenthal.

Assemblymember Rosenthal’s bill to label GMOs, bill A. 617, which is carried in the Senate by Kenneth P. LaValle, has strong bipartisan support and more than 70 cosponsors. It passed out of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee earlier this year and now heads to the Committee on Codes.

Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, represents the 67th Assembly district which includes the Upper West Side and parts of the Clinton/ Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods in Manhattan.