The Food and Drug Administration’s announcement of a ban on menthol cigarettes birthed one the strangest political alliances of recent memory. Civil rights and social justice groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union align with law enforcement organizations, libertarians and conservatives in criticizing the bid to enact one of the most significant prohibitions in decades. For now, litigation from pressure groups has put enough pressure on the FDA to advance a policy that was explicitly rejected by the Obama administration a little more than a decade ago. The rationale for prohibition rests on two assumptions. The first is that menthol cigarettes present a more significant threat to public health than their nonmenthol counterparts, particularly to Black Americans. The second is that banning menthol will not produce a sizeable illicit market and won’t result in more interactions between cops and minorities.