We are writing on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) toexpress our concern over the advertising restrictions contained in S. 982, TheFamily Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (hereinafter the ‘2009Tobacco Control Bill’). The ACLU is America’s largest and oldest civil libertiesorganization, having over half a million members, countless additional activistsand supporters, and 53 affiliates nationwide. We last commented on the issue oftobacco advertising regulation when S. 2626, the Youth Smoking Prevention andPublic Health Protection Act of 2002 (hereinafter the ‘2002 Youth SmokingBill’), was introduced during the 107th Congress. As in 2002, we continue tobelieve that the advertising restrictions in this year’s bill are not drawn narrowlyto achieve the stated public purpose and, as such, fail to comply with the freespeech protections of the First Amendment. In the absence of a much moresubstantial narrowing of the advertising restrictions in a manner directly tied tothe goal of reducing youth smoking, we urge the removal of the advertisingrestrictions set forth in Section 102 of the bill. It is our understanding that such anamendment is likely to be offered when the bill comes to the floor forconsideration and we urge you to support it.