Credit: Reuters/Andrew Burton
Benjamin Lesczynski, 8, of New York, takes a sip of a ''Big Gulp'' while protesting the proposed ''soda-ban,'' that New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has suggested, outside City Hall in New York July 9, 2012.
The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, "violated the state principle of separation of powers," the First Department of the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division said in a unanimous decision.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had advanced the regulation as a way to combat obesity among city residents. Beverage makers and business groups, however, challenged it in court, calling it an attack on consumers' personal freedom.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
