The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry, expressed disappointment today after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit declined to grant a preliminary injunction to pause enforcement of a New York law restricting the sale of certain dietary supplements to individuals under 18.
Oral arguments in the appeal were heard on January 24, 2025. While the Second Circuit did not disturb the lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction, CRN’s broader lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law on First Amendment grounds is still permitted to proceed.
The law, which took effect on April 22, 2024, prohibits retailers from selling over-the-counter dietary supplements to minors if those products are labeled, marketed, or otherwise represented for weight-loss or muscle-building. Rather than banning specific ingredients, the law focuses on how products are marketed — particularly claims related to body image and physical appearance. CRN argues that this constitutes an unlawful restriction on commercial speech under the First Amendment.
“While we are disappointed in the court’s decision not to halt enforcement at this stage, we remain confident in the strength of our constitutional challenge,” said Megan Olsen, CRN’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “This law improperly targets truthful, lawful marketing claims about dietary supplements and represents a troubling attempt to regulate speech, not safety.”
“This case is far from over,” said Steve Mister, CRN’s President and CEO. “We are prepared to continue fighting for the principle that the government cannot suppress commercial speech simply because it disapproves of the message. Consumers and companies alike deserve regulatory frameworks that are rooted in science, not stigma.”
The New York law, enacted in 2023, was the first in the nation to prohibit the sale of supplements marketed for weight-loss and muscle-building to individuals under 18. It was developed with support from the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) at Harvard, which has promoted similar legislation in other states, claiming without evidence that eating disorders and body dysmorphia are caused by supplement use.
Currently, lawmakers in several other states are considering comparable restrictions, signaling a broader national trend that raises significant concerns about regulatory overreach and the erosion of commercial free speech rights. Even this decision on the preliminary injunction acknowledged that the New York legislature used a product’s marketing as a proxy for determining whether it is actually harmful. CRN maintains that reliance on a product’s marketing claims, rather than any actual evidence of harm from the product itself, violates the First Amendment by regulating speech in a way that does not directly and narrowly advance a substantial government interest.
CRN has consistently refuted the claim that there is a causal relationship between dietary supplement use and the development of eating disorders or body dysmorphia. In a 2022 review published in Nutrients, researcher Susan Hewlings, Ph.D., R.D., found that the evidence to date does not support a causative role for dietary supplements in eating disorders, concluding that "the available literature does not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between dietary supplement use and disordered eating behaviors," and emphasized that most supplement users report using these products responsibly as part of broader health and fitness goals.
CRN maintains that policies restricting supplement access based on unfounded assumptions risk undermining legitimate health and wellness practices without addressing the complex, multifactorial causes of eating disorders. 
About the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973, is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing 180+ dietary supplement and functional food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and companies providing services to those manufacturers and suppliers. In addition to complying with a host of federal and state regulations governing dietary supplements and food in the areas of manufacturing, marketing, quality control and safety, our manufacturer and supplier members also agree to adhere to additional voluntary guidelines as well as to CRN’s Code of Ethics.