The American Beverage Association is taking the city of San Francisco to court on two ordinances requiring warning labels on sugary beverages and prohibiting advertisements of the products on public property, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The two ordinances are the strongest laws in the nation against sodas and other sugary beverages. The first ordinance prevents beverage manufacturers from running ads on buses, billboards, transit shelters, stadiums and other highly visible public property. The second ordinance requires beverages to carry labels reading "WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay."

ABA claims that both laws violate the First Amendment.

"The city is free to try to persuade consumers to share its opinions about sugar-sweetened beverages," the association said in the lawsuit. "Instead, the city is trying to ensure that there is no free marketplace of ideas, but instead only a government-imposed, one-sided public ‘dialogue' on the topic—in violation of the First Amendment."

The California State Outdoor Advertising Association and the California Retailers Association have joined ABA in the lawsuit. The groups are not challenging a third ordinance banning spending city funds on sugar beverages, the newspaper reported. http://bit.ly/1S7wENK

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