Twenty-four attorneys general from across the US have voiced their support for proposed graphic cigarette warning labels like a picture of diseased lungs and a sewn-up corpse of a smoker.

The Attorneys general from twenty-four states, including Alaska, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, California, Connecticut, Utah, Maryland and Washington, filed a “friend of the court” brief last Friday with the US Court of Appeals in Washington in support of the Food & Drug Administration's challenge of a lower court ruling in the case.

In June this year, the Food & Drug Administration ordered cigarette companies to print new cigarette warning labels on the entire top half of cigarette packs, both on front and rear.

But, a District Court judge last month granted a request by some tobacco companies to block the labels while determining if the new warning labels infringe their free speech rights.

Some of the nation’s largest tobacco companies, including Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. Inc and Liggett Group LLC, argue that changing cigarette packaging would cost millions of dollars more.

The tobacco industry may eventually bow to the FDA’s new rules about warning labels, but its latest lawsuit could hinder the new warning labels for years to come.