Smoking ban challenge ends

The Missouri Supreme Court has declined to take up a case against Springfield’s 2011 smoking ban, officially ending the legal challenge filed by a local bar owner. “This is the end of the road,” said Jonathan Sternberg, a Kansas City attorney who has represented Ruthie’s Bar owner Jean Doublin in the case.

Sternberg said the state Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear Doublin’s challenge, which means the June decision by the Southern District Court of Appeals will stand. Appeals court judges had rejected Sternberg’s argument that the Springfield law — passed by voters after a successful petition drive — is in conflict with the Missouri Indoor Clean Air Act of 1992. Sternberg argued that a provision in the 1992 law allows bars and taverns to post signs “making nonsmoking areas unavailable,” granting a right to allow smoking that superseded the Springfield law.

Greene County Judge Jason Brown wrote in an October opinion that he thought Sternberg’s argument had merit, but he felt compelled to rule against Doublin because of an earlier appeals court decision in the Western District. Southern District appellate judges ruled against the challenge, as well, concluding the 1992 state law “is not a statute that was enacted to permit smoking or to protect the rights of smokers,” but instead is meant to prohibit smoking. “We still believe the court was wrong,” Sternberg said.

“But obviously the Missouri Supreme Court did not feel this was an issue of statewide importance or interest.” Sternberg said the high court’s decision not to hear the case means the Southern District opinion will be binding in this part of the state. “Salvation for the free market, if any, lies with the state legislature,” he said, referencing a bill Rep. Melissa Leach, R-Springfield, filed in the most recent session that attempted to exempt bars and some other businesses from smoking bans statewide. The bill died in committee when the session ended, but Leach said she may file it again.