New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vowed to appeal a city judge’s dismissal of an “arbitrary and capricious” ban on large sugary drinks.

The ban on the sale of sugary drinks exceeding 16 ounces was set to take effect Tuesday, before New York Supreme Court Judge Milton A. Tingling Jr. decided Monday the city is “enjoined and permanently restrained from implementing or enforcing the new regulations.”

Michael A. Cardozo, the Bloomberg administration’s chief counsel, said in a statement that they plan to appeal the decision as soon as possible, because “the Board of Health has the legal authority — and responsibility — to tackle” obesity.

“We plan to appeal the sugary drinks decision as soon as possible, and we are confident the measure will ultimately be upheld,” the mayor’s office tweeted shortly after the decision was announced.

In his 36-page ruling, Judge Tingling wrote that the rules are “fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences.”

“The simple reading of the rule leads to the earlier acknowledged uneven enforcement even within a particular city block, much less the city as a whole. … the loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the state purpose of the rule,” he wrote.







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