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Suit Filed Over Smoke Ban

The owners of The Virginian Saloon and three nonprofit groups filed a lawsuit Friday opposing the Teton Health District’s Smokefree Air Rule, which is set to go into effect Saturday.

The lawsuit asks 9th District Court Judge Nancy Guthrie to “declare that the 2009 Air Rule is void and unenforceable.”

The Teton County board of health approved the rule, which prohibits smoking cigarettes in all public places including bars, restaurants and places of employment, in late March following a mandatory public comment period.

The board began pursuing a smoking cigarettes ban through the health department last fall after attempts to get the Jackson Town Council to approve an ordinance failed. Councilors thought such an ordinance was unnecessary because so few places permit smoking cigarettes.

Flat Creek Development Co., which owns the Virginian, Wyoming Contractor’s Association, Wyoming Trucking Association and the Wyoming State Liquor Association argue the health department doesn’t have the authority to enact or enforce the smoke-free air rule.

The agency is an appointed body that has only the powers bestowed upon it by elected officials, and elected officials have defeated legislation on the state and local level in recent years, the lawsuit states.

The complainants argue the rule is unlawful because Wyoming law “prohibits the delegation of municipal functions, other than those which are purely administrative, to officials not subject to the control of the people.”

Keith Gingery, attorney for Teton County and the health district, said he expected this argument.

The state Legislature granted public heath boards in the state the power to protect public health, he said.

“The question here is, does that include smoke-free air?” Gingery said. “And that will be the key legal discussion.”

The complainants also argue that the rule is inequitable.

The suit states that while the rule is “based on the finding that ‘breathing secondhand smoke cigarettes is a cause of disease to healthy nonsmokers,’ the 2009 Air Rule does not prohibit smoking cigarettes in personal residences or personal vehicles or private clubs.”

The lawsuit argues there is not justification for “imposing restrictions on less than all classes of smoking cigarettes or classes of locations allowing smoking cigarettes.”

The suit argues the rule is “special legislation which violates Wyoming constitutional requirement that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.”

The suit also alleges the rule violates the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, though it does not say how.

The Virginian is the only establishment affected by the new rule because it is the only business that allows smoking cigarettes inside other than Tobacco Row, which is exempt from the rule.

Max Anderson, the Virginian Saloon and Liquor Store manager, said she is not commenting on the lawsuit until after the weekend.

She told the News&Guide earlier this week that the bar would comply with the rule, stop smoking cigarettes and remove ashtrays.

Steven Freudenthal and Frank Hess, attorneys for the complainants, did not immediately return phone calls Friday.

Other cigarettes news and tobacco market events you can find at links bellow:

   • Best-Buy-Cigarettes.Com Tobacco News

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   • Discount-Cigarettes-Planet.Com Cigarettes News





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