NEWPORT -- A group of bar and restaurant owners sued the state today,
saying that the new smoking ban is unconstitutional because it unfairly
exempts a number of businesses.
The new state law exempts a number of small neighborhood pubs, nonprofit
organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, and the state's two
gambling parlors.
Filed in Superior Court, Newport, the lawsuit claims that there is no
logical reason to exempt some facilities while prohibiting smoking in
others.
Exempting ``substantially identical public places,'' the lawsuit says,
``is arbitrary and bears no reasonable relationship [to] the promotion
of the public health and welfare or any other permissible stae
objective.''
The suit was filed by five businesses who say they have seen a 10- to
35-percent drop in sales since the ban took effect March 1. They are:
Cafe 200 in Newport, Picasso's Pizza & Pub in Warwick, Nicky's Lounge in
Coventry, Scooby's Neighborhood Grille in Middletown and Odd Ball Sports
Bar in Middletown.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and David R. Gifford, the acting
Department of Health director, are named as defendants.
Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. scheduled a hearing for
this Thursday on the group's request for a temporary restraining order
to block the exemptions.
Several compromises were made last year to pass the comprehensive
smoking ban, which prohibits smoking in virtually all public places
including bars, restaurants, office buildings and bowling alleys.
To appease several members of the House, establishments with class C and
class D liquor licenses were allowed to have smoking for an extra 19
months, until Oct. 1, 2006.
The class C and D facilities must each have 10 or fewer employees to be
exempt. Class D establishments -- such as a Veterans of Foreign Wars
post or Knights of Columbus hall -- are temporarily exempt, so long as
they are nonprofit or charitable corporations with a defined membership
and ``not ordinarily a place of public accommodation.''
There are about 35 class C license holders in the state, and about 275
class D facilities. Exactly how many of them would come under the
exemption is not clear.
Lawmakers also decided to permanently exempt the state's two gambling
parlors -- Newport Grand and Lincoln Park -- as well as cigar and
smoking bars.
Representatives of the two gambling facilities testified before the
legislature last spring that, when Delaware's smoking ban went into
effect in November 2002, the state's gambling facilities saw a
12.4-percent drop in business. Customers decided to go to West Virginia
instead, they said.
Rhode Island takes about 60 percent of the revenue from Lincoln Park and
Newport Grand -- an estimated $255 million this year -- and legislators
were reluctant to risk that source of money.
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