Judge rules Greenville smoking ban violates state law

Publication Date: 2007-03-09

• Author:MEG KINNARD
• Publication:Wilmington Morning Star

A judge in Greenville snuffed out the city's new indoor-smoking ban Thursday, ruling that South Carolina in 1996 passed a state law that expressly prevented local governments from creating their own rules on smoking.

"Whether it is a good idea that smoking should be banned in indoor areas is exclusively a legislative issue," Judge John C. Few wrote in his decision, which he said "has nothing whatsoever to do with smoking."

Few based much of his decision on one sentence in a 1996 amendment to the Clean Indoor Air Act that had been passed six years before. The act outlawed smoking in certain public areas, such as preschools, government buildings and arenas, except in designated areas...

It was not immediately clear whether the ruling would affect numerous other indoor smoking bans set to go into effect around the state.

Greenville Mayor Knox White vowed to appeal, according to The Greenville News...