South Dakota’s Expanded Smoking Ban Stands After Circuit Court Ruling

It remains illegal to smoke in South Dakota restaurants, bars, casinos, video lottery establishments and package liquor stores, as a second circuit court judge ruled against a business owner who claimed the ban hurt his revenues.

The ban, which was enacted by the state legislature in 2009 and confirmed by voters in 2010, prohibits smoking in the locations mentioned above, though allows for smoking in tobacco shops, hotel rooms designated as smoking rooms, and existing cigar bars.

In 2011, a lawsuit was filed by Rick Law and Intrepid Ventures Operations, LLC, World Wide Holdings, Inc. and Interactive Holdings, Inc., the owner of a video lottery establishment in Sioux Falls. Law claimed that the ban violated several provisions of the state’s constitution, including that businesses affected by the ban can no longer use private property for a lawful business. In addition, he claimed that the ban was a violation on the state’s prohibition on private and special laws. In his lawsuit, Law’s attorneys claimed that “the establishment of a class allowed to permit smoking is arbitrary and especially crafted to create an exclusive class which is immune from the smoking prohibition.”

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told KSFY-TV that the state moved for a summary judgment on the plaintiff’s claims. Second Circuit Court Judge John Pekas ruled that the ban was not unconstitutional and that it did not interfere with the “plaintiff’s reasonable investment-backed expectations.”

Law can still appeal his case to the South Dakota Supreme Court.