WASHINGTON - The federal government has decided to abandon its legal fight to require cigarette makers to place large, graphic and gruesome warning labels on packs of cigarettes, reports the Washington Post.

In August 2012, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld a lower court ruling, blocking the FDA€™s mandate to require tobacco manufacturers put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and advertisements on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment€™s free speech protections. In December, the same court denied the federal government€™s request to reconsider its decision.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder wrote to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) on March 15 that the Solicitor General will not "seek Supreme Court review of the First Amendment issues at the present time."