Supreme Court to hear case on bans

COLUMBIA --- The power of cities and towns to ban indoor, public smoking in South Carolina will be called into question before the state's highest court next week, and its decision has the potential to quash smoking bans already in effect across the state.

• Photos

State Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, presents a House resolution in honor of former Grovetown City Councilwoman Marjorie Adams, to her husband, Hoyt Adams, at the city's semi-monthly council meeting Monday, May 22, 2006. The resolution will be hung in City Hall close to Adams' portrait shown (center) on the wall in the City Council Chambers. Valerie Rowell/Staff

The argument to be heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court stems from an appeal by the city of Greenville, which had a smoking ban that went into effect a year ago. The city levied $50 fines against smokers who lit up in prohibited areas and $200 fines against businesses that allowed them to puff away. Dozens of bars and restaurants sued, claiming the ban would hurt business.

In March, Judge John C. Few ended the ban. He ruled that such bans are a legislative issue and cited a 1996 state law that he said prevented local governments from creating their own rules on smoking. Judge Few's ruling contradicted a decision handed down several months earlier by Judge Deadra Jefferson, who in December 2006 dismissed a similar challenge to a ban in Sullivan's Island, saying state law did not dissuade municipalities from regulating smoking.

The Supreme Court hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, deals only with the Greenville case, but experts said it has the potential to affect smoking bans across the state.

"If the Supreme Court says that this area of the law is pre-empted by the state, and individual cities and towns cannot make those types of laws, then that would have statewide application," said Charleston attorney Paul Dominick, who represents the owner of a Sullivan's Island bar who challenged the ruling there.

If the justices uphold the earlier Greenville decision, that would clear the way for the Sullivan's Island ruling to be overturned, he said. An appeal of that Sullivan's Island ruling is still pending before the state Supreme Court.

If the justices rule that state law does not allow municipalities to make rules about smoking, lawmakers who go back to work next week will have to decide whether to ban indoor smoking across the state. The effort has come up short in previous sessions.