WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled for the Food and Drug Administration in its crackdown on sweet-flavored vaping products following a surge in teen electronic cigarette use.

But the justices’ unanimous decision throwing out a federal appeals court ruling is not the final word in the case, and the FDA could change its approach now that President Donald Trump has promised to “save” vaping.

The high court ruled that the FDA, during President Joe Biden’s administration, did not violate federal law when it denied an application from Dallas-based company Triton Distribution to sell e-juices like “Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry” and “Suicide Bunny Mother’s Milk and Cookies.” The products are heated by an e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.

Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, called the decision “a major victory for the health of America’s kids and efforts to protect them from the flavored e-cigarettes that have fueled a youth nicotine addiction crisis.”

The FDA has rejected applications for more than a million nicotine products formulated to taste like fruit, dessert or candy because their makers couldn’t show that flavored vapes had a net public benefit, as required by law.

It has approved some tobacco-flavored vapes, and recently it allowed its first menthol-flavored e-cigarettes for adult smokers after the company provided data showing the product was more helpful in quitting.

But the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Triton, agreeing that the FDA changed its standards with little warning in violation of federal law.

While mainly ruling for the FDA on Wednesday, the Supreme Court noted that the agency had said the company’s marketing plan would be an important factor in evaluating its application. But it ultimately did not consider the marketing plan, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.

The appeals court was ordered to consider if the failure to do so is an important mistake that might still lead to a decision in Triton’s favor.

The FDA has so far not instituted changes to its polices on vaping. But on Tuesday, the FDA’s top tobacco regulator, Brian King, was removed from his post amid sweeping cuts to the federal health workforce that have cleared out many of the nation’s leading health experts. King oversaw hundreds of warning letters issued to companies that make, sell and distribute flavored vapes.

Police have identified a 19-year-old man who died after he was stabbed in St. Paul.

Officers responding to 911 calls about 11:30 p.m. Monday found Jay’Mier K. Givens, of St. Paul, outside a Dayton’s Bluff residence on Sixth Street near Birmingham Street. Givens had been stabbed multiple times and died at the hospital.

No one was under arrest as of Wednesday morning. Police have asked anyone with information to call the homicide unit at 651-266-5650.

Givens was not connected to the house he was found near, according to police. His homicide was the second of the year in St. Paul.

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — The National Institutes of Health has canceled a grant awarded to researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

The project, “Refinement of a Training Module to Improve Discussions of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Cancer Clinics,” received an $80,700 award from the National Cancer Institute in March 2024.

According to the grant description, the goal of the project was to create training for oncology clinicians — those who treat cancer — “focused on why and how to ask about patient sexual orientation and gender identity.” It cites a lack of data on the needs of sexual and gender minority cancer patients, who “are often diagnosed with late-stage cancer and often die from cancer prematurely.”

The NIH, under control of President Donald Trump, terminated the grant on March 20.

The Mayo Clinic had no comment, a spokesperson told the Post Bulletin.

As of April 1, no other Mayo Clinic grants appear in the data set, made public by the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, an arm of the U.S. Department of Human Services.

The TAGGS data set contains hundreds of grants that had been awarded to institutions across the country, all canceled by the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration under “departmental authority.”

Many of the canceled grants focused on the LGBTQ+ community, racial minorities, HIV, and vaccination against COVID-19 and other diseases.

In addition to the Mayo Clinic grant, NIH has canceled funding for several projects at the University of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Health also lost some CDC funding, and the state Department of Human Services had several grants from SAMHSA pulled.

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By STEPHEN GROVES

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are facing pressure Wednesday from President Donald Trump to oppose a Democratic resolution that would nullify the presidential emergency on fentanyl he is using to implement tariffs on Canada.

Just hours before Trump was set to announce his plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on China, Mexico and Canada — his so-called “Liberation Day” — the Senate was expected to vote on a resolution that offers Republicans an off-ramp to the import taxes on Canada. It is a significant test for Republican loyalty to Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S. economy by clamping down on free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan could force an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching with unease.

The votes of at least four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — were in doubt ahead of the vote. If all Democrats plus the four Republicans vote for the resolution, it would boost it to the simple majority needed to pass the Senate. The legislation would still need to be brought up and passed in the Republican-controlled House.

In a social media post just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, Trump singled out the four senators, saying they “will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl.”

To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.

Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, said at at news conference Tuesday that Trump was inventing a “made-up emergency” to help pay for extending tax cuts that he argued would mostly benefit the wealthy.

“How are they going to pay for it? Massive cuts in programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and tariffs imposed on the backs of everyday Americans,” Kaine said.

Democrats were highlighting how the tariffs on Canada could make it more expensive to build homes, disrupt industries like shipbuilding and beer brewing and raise prices on imported grocery products.

“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech. He added, “The Senate has a chance to slow this trade war down today if Republicans join us.”

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For their part, Republican leaders were trying to hold their members in line against the tariff resolution by emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.

Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso claimed in a floor speech that former President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”

“There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border,” the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the bold, decisive, swift, swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.”

However, a key group of Senate Republicans are worried about the economic impacts from the tariffs on Canada. Collins noted that already “Canada is beefing up its security on the border” to address drug trafficking and said she was concerned what tariffs would do to businesses and households in Maine.

“We have a paper mill in northern Maine that gets its pulp from Canada. It’s pumped across the river and then made into paper. That mill employs 510 people. It’s going to be in trouble if there’s a tariff of 25% put on pulp,” Collins said.

Still, other Republicans noted their concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries, but still wanted to give Trump room to negotiate better trade deals.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state like Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. But he didn’t plan on supporting the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump’s Wednesday announcement would just be a starting point for negotiations for the reciprocal dropping of tariffs.

The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety.”