role of the courts

For those of us in Health Policy and Decision Making, I was intrigued to see the food policy writer Mark Bittman blatantly acknowledge the power of the courts to set policy in this article.  About halfway through this piece which plays off of the defeat of the GMO-labeling proposition here in California, he suggests that sugar is the tobacco of the 21st century but until somebody successfully sues for getting type II diabetes from it, policy initiatives will languish.  Maybe I was more intrigued to recognize that I now understand a whole background to a sentence in an article that wouldn't have meant much to me a couple of months ago.

Here it is:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/the-food-movement-takes-a-beating/