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DC Judge Sets Back Smoking Ban Ballot Initiative [05/24-3]

Excerpts from: Bar, Restaurant Smoking Ban Set Back in D.C.

By Henri E. Cauvin The Washington Post [05/22/04]

A D.C. Superior Court judge yesterday snuffed out a ballot initiative to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, ruling that the proposed measure improperly encroached on the city's budget process.

In a 13-page decision delivered late yesterday, Judge Mary A. Gooden Terrell called Initiative 66 "invalid" and "improper" and ordered the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to reject it.

The ruling was a victory for restaurant owners, who resisted efforts to impose an outright ban on smoking and sued the election board in March to keep the initiative off the November ballot. They argued that the initiative illegally infringed upon powers of local government officials to make decisions that affect city revenue.

Even before yesterday's ruling, the initiative's prospects were dimming. To get a place on the November ballot, anti-smoking activists needed to secure 18,000 signatures of registered voters by July 5. By filing the suit, the restaurant association was able to keep Initiative 66 boosters from beginning to collect signatures for the initiative, also known as "the D.C. Smokefree Workplace Initiative of 2004."

The anti-smoking forces had been campaigning since September to ban the smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all D.C. workplaces, including bars and restaurants. They began the push in the city soon after the Montgomery County Council banned smoking in restaurants and bars.

"Initiative 66 involved important public health issues that are the proper subject of an initiative," he said last night. "The decision goes to the very balance between the rights of the electorate and the rights of the city council, and impacts the balance of political power that is embodied in the initiative and referendum act."

click here to view the decision by Judge Mary A. Gooden Terrell