We’re two months into the smoking ban, and already some of the local businesses are in an uproar. The lawsuit that has been filed against the City of Ames is frivolous at best. While the lawsuit doesn’t have a leg to stand on for legal grounds, some people are renewing their questions of rights of the businesses to do what they want. The case, which is to be heard today, will also argue that the ordinance is harming their business, in an attempt to prove the illegality of the ban.

Do the restaurants really have rights which are being infringed upon by this ban? The short answer is no. The Iowa Code states that smoking is able to be restricted by laws, ordinances and regulations. While it’s clear the state retains any power for revision, it only actually mentions that the state is the final word on enforcement of the breaking of the laws.

Is the ban unfair? Chances are it is, but something being unfair is hardly a way to set a standard for laws and regulations.

So just who does the ban help? Non-smokers. Those people who choose not to smoke because they value silly things like breathing, not coughing up a lung and being able to speak.

Many will claim however, that smokers should have freedom of choice and that non-smokers can always sit in the non-smoking sections. This would be a good point, except that the partitions don’t stop smoke from dispersing to the non-smoking section.

There are those who believe that smoking should be OK, because every American has a right to do something that is perfectly legal. But consider this. Drinking by people of age is legal, just like smoking. Drinking is only allowed in places with liquor licenses so they may sell it and have it consumed in their establishments. Now imagine that every time someone took a drink they got to punch you. Smoking is the same thing, and yet some assume that it should be OK to do in public just because it is legal.

However, the Constitution, with all of its rights granted to the people, is still limited. State laws do say it’s OK for some people to smoke. But, non-smokers are given the right to life, liberty and happiness just like everyone else. The most important of those being life. If people choose not to die slowly hooked to tubes and machines, that right certainly supersedes a person’s “right to smoke.”

These are certainly people that need to practice self-control if they can’t go to lunch and go without having a cigarette or going outside and standing away from the building to smoke.

But what about the businesses, you ask? First it’s important to keep in mind that students didn’t return until the end of August. The alarmist nature of the comments being made by these businesses is just that. The businesses want people to believe that without smoking they will all fail, an idea that is laughable.

Perhaps a look at other reasons for a loss a business would shed light on the subject. The economy is currently in a slowdown right now, affecting just about everyone (did someone say budget cuts?). With all areas currently going down, it’s not hard to believe that perhaps local businesses are being affected in the same way.

And it doesn’t stop there. For the month of September, businesses may again report a decreasing amount of money, from what they projected and what they made in the previous year. Chances are good this is due to the cancellation of the Iowa/Iowa State game, which would have brought fans from all over the state who would more than likely eat, before or after the game.

If businesses are really affected in such a negative way, then why are only seven businesses a part of the lawsuit? Shouldn’t all businesses be seeing the huge drops as well?

Perhaps these businesses are unique in a way that none of the others in Ames are being affected. If this is the case, perhaps the city council should go back and reevaluate the smoking ban to not affect these type of businesses. Now is not the time to put a halt on the ban because then all the possible causes of their business loss might not be found. If it is the ban that is causing the loss, then and only then should the city council try to find a solution.

Blaine Moyle is a junior in English from Des Moines.