I tried to warn opponents of the smoking ban that they would not succeed in getting a court to overturn this law.

In the first legal skirmish, attorney George Eichhorn failed to convince a judge that the smoking ban should be suspended pending the outcome of bar and restaurant owners’ legal challenge. He had argued that “the smoking ban is ‘bizarre’ and ‘strange’ and unconstitutional for a variety of reasons.”

They should have listened to the people urging them to challenge the smoking ban’s unfair exemptions for casinos, instead of trying to get the whole law thrown out.

The Iowa law is comparable to many other municipal and state-level bans on smoking in public places. I give this lawsuit very little chance of success.