( June 16, 2026, 1:50 PM EDT) -- TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida state agency on June 15 filed a response brief to the Florida Supreme Court asserting that it should not exercise jurisdiction over a North Carolina-based hookah distributor’s petition for review of a split appellate panel’s decision affirming the state’s refusal to refund $1.4 million in excise taxes and surcharges on the company’s hookah sales, arguing that the decision created no conflict and that the company only “seeks to relitigate the case.”...