The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Maine's effort to stop the delivery of tobacco products bought over the Internet to teens, in Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport Association, a unanimous decision handed down on February 20, 2008.

Maine had passed legislation which combined several important provisions to stop the flow of Internet-ordered cigarettes to teens. First, only Maine-licensed retailers could accept orders for the delivery of tobacco to anyone in Maine. Second, the delivery service was required to take steps to verify that the person who ordered the tobacco product was the person who was receiving it and also that such person was over 18. Government-issued ID's were required for anyone under the age of 27. Third, the law prohibited a delivery service from "knowingly" transporting a tobacco product to anyone in Maine unless the sender or receiver had a Maine license. A transporter was deemed to "know" that it was transporting a tobacco product if the package was marked as containing tobacco and had on it the name and license number of a Maine-licensed tobacco retailer, or if the sender appeared on a list of un-licensed retailers that Maine's Attorney General distributed to various package-delivery companies.

Several trucking companies challenged the law, arguing that it was pre-empted by federal law regulating their industry. This is the same general legal theory that has been used to strike down other state efforts to regulate the sale of tobacco products. In this case, the Supreme Court held that federal law regulating truckers precluded Maine from imposing additional restrictions on them. The Court specifically rejected Maine's argument that there should be an exception because of the important public health reasons underlying its legislation. The Court recognized the "importance of the public health objective" but went on to say that there was no basis for such an exception in the federal law. According to the Court, Congress' interest in uniform national regulations for trucking trumped Maine's effort to impose these restrictions.

Because the Court's ruling turned on the interpretation of a federal law, Congress has the authority to reverse the decision. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg filed a separate concurring opinion, explaining that "I write separately to emphasize the large regulatory gap left by an application of the FAAAA [the law in question] perhaps overlooked by Congress, and the urgent need for the National Legislature to fill that gap."

Maine's legislation was part of a growing national discussion on the regulation of the Internet sale of tobacco products. In its 2007 Report entitled "Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation", The Institute of Medicine recommended that "All states should ban the sale and shipment of tobacco products directly to consumers through mail order or the Internet or other electronic systems. Shipments of tobacco products should be permitted only to licensed wholesale or retail outlets." The IOM also endorsed the licensing of retail outlets that sell tobacco products. For further information on the IOM report, see http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/20076/43179.aspx.