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 "There are still a lot of unknowns," said Yungk.
Since the halt was announced on Friday U.N. officials and attorneys
for refugees have also worked to identify emergency cases that could
be sent to other countries. But the prospects are not promising.
Canada and several European nations where U.N. officials would
normally reroute cases, including Sweden, Norway and Germany, have
already taken record numbers of refugees in recent years. The
Minister’s Office for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in
Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Indiana went too far by
subjecting out-of-state manufacturers to detailed rules for such
things as sinks, cleaning equipment and even contracts with outside
security firms, and could not enforce those rules against them.
Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge David Hamilton said
the state's Vapor Pens and E-Liquid Act has an "extraterritorial
reach that is unprecedented," violating the "dormant" Commerce
Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Hamilton said Indiana could impose reasonable and "even-handed"
rules to ensure the safety of vaping products.
But he said some of its rules were "remarkably specific," and that
"only one company in the entire United States, located not so
coincidentally in Indiana," met them.
"These circumstances raise obvious concerns about protectionist
purposes and what looks very much like a legislative grant of
monopoly," he wrote.
The decision by the Chicago-based appeals court overturned a June 30
ruling by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker in Indianapolis.
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That ruling had been appealed by out-of-state e-cigarette makers
Legato Vapors, Rocky Mountain E Cigs and Derb E Cigs, supported by
the Right to be Smoke-Free Coalition trade group.
"We're very happy," Robert Epstein, a lawyer for the out-of-state
companies, said in an interview. He said the law "essentially
foreclosed" them from delivering e-cigarettes to Indiana retailers
and consumers.
The office of former Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller had
defended the law in court.
A spokesman for Zoeller's successor, Curtis Hill, did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
In court papers, the out-of-state manufacturers said the Indiana law
drove costs higher and subjected them to potentially inconsistent
regulations, "as other states decide how best to regulate e-vapor
products and enact their own e-vapor laws."
The case is Legato Vapors LLC et al v Cook et al, 7th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, No. 15-00761.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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