Ifs, ands or butts.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS

It would be understandable if Hugh Holliman feels a bit like Barack Obama these days. Like the president, his political career suffered in last fall's election, though his fate was worse than that of his fellow Democrat. The former majority leader of the N.C. House of Representatives was swept from office by the Republican tide that put the GOP in charge of the statehouse. As is the case with the president, his signature political achievement is under fire. But unlike Obama's health-care plan, the state's year-old smoking ban in restaurants and bars probably is safe on the legislative front. The new Republican majority has made no noise about trying to undo the ban, championed by Holliman, a lung-cancer survivor from Lexington. The challenge comes in the courts, from lawsuits brought by bar owners.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A judge has rejected health department citations against the owners of four bars in Greenville, meaning they can pretty much ignore the law for now. The judge said lawmakers' decision to exempt country clubs, clubs run by fraternal organizations and other types of nonprofit private clubs amounted to unequal protection under the law. Another bar owner in Greensboro has chosen to defy the law while appealing a lower-court ruling that went against him. He's making a similar claim that the law unfairly targets some businesses while letting others slide.

The court challenges echo the complaints when the law was passed. Critics argued that legislators had waded into an issue of private property rights, that the marketplace and personal choice could sort out whether smoking was permitted or prohibited in bars and restaurants. Their arguments resonated in a state where tobacco had been so critical to the economy. Holliman always maintained that the law wasn't about those things. "It's about the rights of all North Carolinians to breathe clean air," he says. Most residents of the Tar Heel State seem to agree. Last summer, after the law had been in effect several months, polls showed roughly two-thirds of likely voters in the state supported the ban.

George Beaman, one of the Greenville bar owners trying to stop the new law, says his business dropped nearly 40% after it took effect. But a lot of other restaurant and bar owners apparently haven't experienced the same kind of declines. Media reports from across the state quote restaurant and bar owners who say most of their patrons are happy about the change, even if some smokers...