{"id":657,"date":"2011-10-19T14:31:56","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T20:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theloungeisback.wordpress.com\/?p=657"},"modified":"2014-01-12T07:40:06","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T07:40:06","slug":"ohio-supreme-court-hears-arguments-challenging-states-smoking-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments challenging state’s smoking ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ohio_s1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the second-biggest news of the day in Ohio — the first being all the tigers and lions that had to be shot — the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments today<\/a> challenging that state’s controversial 2007 smoking ban.<\/p>\n

Ohio is one of the states where controversy over the smoking ban just continues to simmer. In most other states, everyone just gets used to it, but for some reason, in a handful of states, bans were massively controversial when they were being legislated, then continue to be controversial for months and even years afterward. In Ohio, it has dragged on for four-plus years. The most active thread on Topix is about the Ohio smoking ban — a thread that began nearly five years ago and has generated 75,000 comments … and is STILL generating comments. I find it fascinating that the same 20 or 30 people have been pissing at each other over smoking bans on the same thread for five years. (By the way, I highly recommend avoiding Topix because that site has become really lousy with spyware and malware.)<\/p>\n

According to this article, more than 50 bars in Ohio have amassed more than $10,000 in fines. There have been a total of 33,000 citations written against bars over the past four years, totalling $2.5 million in fines. The state has collected about $775,000 of that money.<\/p>\n

Part of Zeno’s argument is that it is being cited, even for posting “no smoking signs” and not putting out ashtrays, while the people lighting up — the smokers — are not cited. And it is not their responsibility to enforce the state law. (Not sure I buy that theory — businesses are liable for what goes on their premises. For instance, many bars have been sued and servers criminally prosecuted for letting people leave shit-faced drunk and then getting in a wreck.)<\/p>\n

Zeno’s Bar in Columbus, Ohio, owes $33,000 in fines for repeatedly ignoring the smoking ban. The bar has sued to overturn the ban. A county judge ruled in favour of the bar, but a state court of appeals overturned that ruling and upheld the state law. Zeno’s is challenging the appeals court ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the second-biggest news of the day in Ohio — the first being all the tigers and lions that had to be shot — the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments today challenging that state’s controversial 2007 smoking ban. Ohio is one of the states where controversy over the smoking ban just continues to simmer. In … Continue reading Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments challenging state’s smoking ban<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/ohio_s1.jpg?fit=432%2C328&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-aB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":521,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=521","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":0},"title":"Ohio Supreme Court will decide smoking ban","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A statewide smoking ban in Ohio, which has been highly contentious from Day One, is headed to the Ohio Supreme Court. An appeal of lower court ruling upholding the law, was accepted by the Supreme Court. That means they will hear the case and make a ruling. No date has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ohio"","block_context":{"text":"Ohio","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ohio_s1.jpg?fit=432%2C328&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":204,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=204","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":1},"title":"Ohio can grab tobacco funds","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ohio Supreme Court ruled this week that the State Legislature does have the power to raid $250 million of the state's tobacco funds. This is money from the 1998 $280 billion Tobacco Settlement Agreement between the states and Big Tobacco. Several states have used these monies simply to balance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=20","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":2},"title":"South Dakota approves smoking ban; the South remains the ashtray of the United States","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"First on the docket is a month-old story from South Dakota (we gots some catching up to do). In South Dakota, the State Legislature passed a smoking ban a couple of years ago. Bar and casino owners passed around a petition to put the issue to a public vote. That\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=69"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/theloungeisback.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/12\/800px-us_states_smoking_bans-svg1.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/theloungeisback.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/12\/800px-us_states_smoking_bans-svg1.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1 1x, https:\/\/theloungeisback.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/12\/800px-us_states_smoking_bans-svg1.png?w=525&h=300&crop=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3295,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3295","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":3},"title":"Court upholds New Orleans smoking ban","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A lawsuit filed by several bars against New Orleans' recently passed smoking ban was tossed out of court by a judge this week. A coalition of bars made a number of arguments on the technicalities of the law, mostly claiming that the law was \"too vague\" (I'm not sure I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=410"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/new-orleans-2.jpg?fit=960%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/new-orleans-2.jpg?fit=960%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/new-orleans-2.jpg?fit=960%2C673&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/new-orleans-2.jpg?fit=960%2C673&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4106,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4106","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":4},"title":"“Tobacco Nation” being left behind","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a really good story from U.S. News and World Report about how the smoking rate in the U.S. has dropped dramatically through much of the country ... except for one region. And that's this funky swath from the Upper Midwest, beginning in West Virginia and then into the Deep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cigarette taxes"","block_context":{"text":"Cigarette taxes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=382"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=278","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":5},"title":"“Dammit, Blamtucky, I ain’t reprogramming a VCR”","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry, I just think that's the funniest movie line. Ever. Kentucky? and Indiana? are considering smoking bans? 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