Texas Justices Expand Tobacco Tax, Revive Constitutional Claim

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that RJR Vapor Co.'s VELO nicotine isolate products are taxable tobacco products under state law because they are tobacco substitutes, but revived RJR’s claim that the tax wasn’t applied uniformly.

The state comptroller had asked the justices to overturn a 2023 appellate ruling that RJR’s nicotine pouches and lozenges aren’t subject to the tax, which applies to “an article or product that is made of tobacco or a tobacco substitute and that is not a cigarette or an e-cigarette.”

The high court said VELO’s products fell under the plain language definition of a tobacco ...