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AG Miller: Lawsuit against Smokefree Air Act is dismissed
5/12/2009

Contact Bob Brammer - 515-281-6699,

"Choose Freedom Iowa" abandons Polk County litigation challenging constitutionality of law.

Des Moines. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Iowa's Smokefree Air Act has been dismissed in Polk County District Court.

District Court Judge Glenn E. Pille dismissed the lawsuit, which was filed July 1, 2008, by Choose Freedom Iowa; the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition (IBOC); Clinton's Organized Bar & Restaurant Owners (COBRA); Froehlich Properties, Inc., doing business as "Fro's"; and Ron Overson, plaintiffs. Named as defendants in the suit were the State of Iowa, the Iowa Dept. of Public Health, and its director, Thomas Newton. Trial had been set for June 30, 2009.

The lawsuit, which was filed just as the new Smokefree Air Act took effect last July, was a broad-based attack on the constitutionality of the law. The Plaintiffs asked the Court for a preliminary injunction last summer to block the law from being in effect until their lawsuit was decided, but Judge Douglas Staskal rejected the motion. Judge Pille dismissed the lawsuit last week, according to Iowa Courts Online.

On another front, 44 Smokefree Air Act liquor license enforcement actions are pending at various stages before the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division. Two actions have resulted in final orders by the ABD Director, with a liquor license suspension and a revocation ordered. The two bars - Fro's in Wilton and Otis Campbell's Bar in West Burlington - filed petitions for judicial review by the courts.

"We will continue to support enforcement of the law and defend any challenges to the constitutionality of the law," said Attorney General Tom Miller.

"The great majority of Iowa businesses are obeying the law, and we will not allow a small minority to flout it," he said


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