NEW YORK - A New York state judge yesterday put a stop to the Bloomberg administration??s ban on the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, "a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure," reports The Wall Street Journal.

According to the decision by New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling, the city is "enjoined and permanently restrained from implementing or enforcing the new regulations." He wrote that the regulations are "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences," and that the "simple reading of the rule leads to the earlier acknowledged uneven enforcement even within a particular city block, much less the city as a whole??the loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule."

The soda ban was scheduled to take effect today. Under the rules, restaurants and even mobile food carts would have been prohibited from selling "sugary" drinks larger than 16 ounces. After a three-month grace period, violators of the ban would have been fined $200 per soda sale.

Judge Tingling also suggested that Mayor Bloomberg overstepped his authority by bringing the sugary drink rules before the Board of Health, which is solely appointed by him. City health officials aren't assigned the "sweeping and unbridled authority to define, create, authorize, mandate and enforce" the health code, he wrote.

Bloomberg isn??t going down without a fight, as postings on the mayor??s Twitter page indicate a clear disapproval of Judge Tingling??s ruling. The mayor announced hours after the ruling that the city would appeal the case stating, "We think the judge is totally in error the way he interpreted the law and we??re convinced that we will win on appeal."