Missouri Court of Appeals upholds Springfield's smoking ban

The appeals court judges agreed with an appeals court panel in Kansas City.

June 19, 2012|by KY3 News

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Springfield's ban on smoking in most public places survived another legal challenge. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, issued a ruling on Tuesday that upholds the ordinance, which voters approved twice in two years.

The lawsuit against the smoking ban was filed last year by the owner of Ruthie's bar on Commercial Street after voters approved the law in April. Greene County Associate Circuit Judge Jason Brown upheld the law, based mostly on a ruling on a similar challenge to Kansas City's smoking ban by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, in Kansas City.

Ruthie's appealed Brown's ruling, and a three-judge panel of the Southern District appeals court heard oral arguments on the case this month. The panel issued its ruling on Tuesday and agreed with Brown and the Western District Court of Appeals.

The appeals court ruling says the city ordinance does not violate state law. The attorney for Ruthie's owner contended the city ordinance conflicts with a state law that lets a bar post signs telling patrons that it does not have nonsmoking areas.

Ruthie's has been open more than 30 years and has always allowed customers and employees to smoke, and posted signs to that effect to satisfy the state law. Its owner, Jean Doublin, says business dropped off sharply after the smoking ban went into effect, and recently said she's not sure if she can stay in business much longer without her former patrons who smoke. Doublin said she couldn't afford to appeal the case to the Missouri Supreme Court.

The state law "is not a statute that was enacted to permit smoking or to protect the rights of smokers," the Southern District appeals court panel wrote. Therefore, the judges said they can't conclude the city ordinance "prohibits what the (state law) permits."

Springfield's ordinance, which went into effect in June 2011, prohibits smoking in nearly all businesses and enclosed spaces open to the public, including bars, and places where employees work. Voters approved the ordinance after a group called One Air Alliance gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot in April 2011.

Opponents of the ordinance gathered signatures to put a proposed repeal of the ordinance before voters this month. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the repeal by an even bigger margin than they approved it last year.

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