Fanny State Rebuffed

That didn’t end up turning out so well, I suppose:

A federal judge struck down a city health regulation yesterday that would have required more than 2,000 restaurants around New York — including chain restaurants like McDonald’s — to post the calorie content of their dishes on their menus.

The ruling by the judge, Richard J. Holwell of United States District Court in Manhattan, was a victory, albeit a narrow one, for the New York State Restaurant Association, which had sued the city Board of Health to challenge the regulation. In his ruling, Judge Holwell said he had banned the city from enacting the regulation because federal law already covers some of the same provisions it sought to put in place.

It was unclear whether the city would try to adopt a regulation that might satisfy the judge.

The regulation, formally known as New York City Health Code 81:50, would have forced restaurants that already voluntarily make public the nutritional information of their dishes on, say, Web sites, posters or tray liners to post that information either on their menus or menu boards.

The rule, adopted last December but delayed because of the lawsuit, was one of a handful of measures that the city has recently undertaken to govern the eating habits of its citizens, including a ban on trans fats. Had it been enacted, it would have affected 2,375 of the more than 23,000 licensed restaurants in New York.