Posted on 04/06/2006 10:31:45 AM PDT by SheLion
DENVER -- Opponents of the statewide smoking ban are considering a court challenge in an effort to prevent the law from taking effect July 1.
Bar and tavern owners, racetrack proprietors and bingo hall operators believe the law is unconstitutional, according to Chuck Ford, a lobbyist for bars and taverns.
Bar owners, casinos and other groups lobbied hard for exemptions from the ban when House Bill 1175 was being debated, claiming it was unfair for lawmakers to exempt casinos, tobacco shops, cigar bars, the smoking lounge at Denver International Airport and private workplaces with no more than three employees.
Ford said by granting an exemption for casinos and not other industries that rely on smoking customers, the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.
Republican House Minority Leader Mike May, one of the bill's sponsors, said he is confident Colorado's law will be upheld.
"It wasn't unexpected that there would be a court challenge," he said.
I'm not a smoker and I don't particularly care to be around a lot of cigarette smoke, but I'd prefer that the government butt the heck out. Most businesses seem to do just fine with separate smoking/no-smoking sections and good ventilation. It's in their best interest to please as large a segment of the population as possible. The free market works.
There's that "Equal Protection Clause" being used again. This time I love it.
Aw heck! I get this right as I'm getting to work and can't get into it.
Oh well. Tomorrow morning bookmark for later.
Bookmark for later, myself. How're them seedlings doin', Randall?
Thanks for the ping!
Dittoes! It's right in the Constitution: The need for a smoke-filled room and millions of debilitated addicts as self-evident, neither Congress, nor the States, nor any local city council or board of supervisors shall infringe on the right to blow smoke anywhere, everywhere and nowhere man, please listen, you don't know what your missin, no where smokers, like George Harrison, the world was at your command....
The reason this statewide ban had the backing of the restaurant industry is because their members in towns who passed bans were dying as the regulars moved a couple miles to places that allowed it.
George Harrison? Probably inferior genes.
He should have been a Stone---they just go on and on and on and "healthy" lifestyle be damned.
And the "Republican" governor Bill Owens signed this thing.
And he wants to be President, I don't think so
The reason this statewide ban had the backing of the restaurant industry is because their members in towns who passed bans were dying as the regulars moved a couple miles to places that allowed it.
Tell this anti freedom creep off. I'm tired of it.
We don't have any smoking establishments here, because smoking will kill you. One way or another, you will quit. Stupid is lighting a bonfire in front of your face and inhaling it. The fiften or so states tht banned the sale of tobacco products some years ago were well within their rights as it is a poisonous product. How the tobacco companies bought their way out of that one might be an interesting story.
I'm more tired of a she-devil hijacking this forum blowing smoke.
And one way or another you will quit your unctious, holier-than-thou, anti-freedom posting techniques.
Either you'll come to your senses or you'll die one day just like everyone else.
YOU'RE the one that keeps making these threads about smoking instead of what they are really about.
BTW, that would be about - freedom - liberties - Big Brother govdad telling everyone exactly what they can and cannot do.
I know you're not happy about this, but it's just in time for my move from California. Love it!
And that global warming is caused by people.
And that Dihydrogen Monoxide is a toxic chemical, that should be banned.
The right to throw your butts anywhere, the right to blow smoke in anyone's face, anywhere, anytime; the right to utterly selfish, addiction-inspired behavior, the right to insult anyone who disagrees with you, the right to hijack patriotic forums in the name of a lit bonfire in your face, the right to ignore the successful transitions to smoke-free-for-the-non-smoker that have occurred in state after state...yes I know what you call your rights and I say all of you chimney people are just blowing smoke.
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