TRO on smoking ban sound legal decision
A decision this past week by Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Key to halt the city's three-month old smoking ban with a temporary restraining order was a sound legal decision, despite the ban proponents' complaints afterward.
To exemplify the level of disdain and disrespect the Breathe Free Oshkosh group seems to have for any opinion other than their own, consider the comments made by group spokesperson Margy Davey, after the ruling was handed down.
Davey said she was disappointed because Judge Key put a legal technicality ahead of the wishes and health of the public. Excuse me, Mrs. Davey, but in case you hadn't heard, a judge's job is to see that the law is followed and upheld, not to follow the whims and wishes of the public, even when they violate the law.
Davey also blamed the city's legal department for not catching the differences in wording between the ordinance itself and the referendum question. While there may be some merit in this particular argument, Breathe Free Oshkosh needs to assume some of the responsibility, too. In fact, they should probably assume the lion's share of it. After all, this group has been working with statewide smoking ban proponents in developing and passing an ordinance that was stronger than any other in the state. Surely there was a legal eagle among this group who could have or should have caught the error.
But then again, these are the same kind of ridiculous arguments and tactics Davey and her group have stooped to all along. When people play by the same rules as Breathe Free Oshkosh, suddenly those rules do not apply and the other party's actions should somehow be invalidated. Breathe Free seems to have one set of standards that they operate by and another that they expect everyone else to operate by. In reality, they have blown more smoke with their rhetoric and double-speak than all the smokers in Oshkosh combined.
Davey was quoted by the Oshkosh Northwestern as saying the judge's decision was a blow to public health and a blow to democracy. Thankfully, however, it was not a blow to the judicial process and the legal system. That would have been the worst travesty.
Let's hope the temporary injunction becomes a permanent one. Perhaps then, the Breathe Free Oshkosh people will exercise more of a spirit of compromise rather than the pig-headed arrogance we've seen thus far. The smoking bans in Neenah and Fond du Lac did not get challenged in court. That should send a loud message and give one of the best reasons yet for Breathe Free to consider the restaurant owners' position and begin working on a compromise. And with citizen opinion split nearly 50/50 on this issue, one cannot afford to continue being pig-headed in their approach.
To exemplify the level of disdain and disrespect the Breathe Free Oshkosh group seems to have for any opinion other than their own, consider the comments made by group spokesperson Margy Davey, after the ruling was handed down.
Davey said she was disappointed because Judge Key put a legal technicality ahead of the wishes and health of the public. Excuse me, Mrs. Davey, but in case you hadn't heard, a judge's job is to see that the law is followed and upheld, not to follow the whims and wishes of the public, even when they violate the law.
Davey also blamed the city's legal department for not catching the differences in wording between the ordinance itself and the referendum question. While there may be some merit in this particular argument, Breathe Free Oshkosh needs to assume some of the responsibility, too. In fact, they should probably assume the lion's share of it. After all, this group has been working with statewide smoking ban proponents in developing and passing an ordinance that was stronger than any other in the state. Surely there was a legal eagle among this group who could have or should have caught the error.
But then again, these are the same kind of ridiculous arguments and tactics Davey and her group have stooped to all along. When people play by the same rules as Breathe Free Oshkosh, suddenly those rules do not apply and the other party's actions should somehow be invalidated. Breathe Free seems to have one set of standards that they operate by and another that they expect everyone else to operate by. In reality, they have blown more smoke with their rhetoric and double-speak than all the smokers in Oshkosh combined.
Davey was quoted by the Oshkosh Northwestern as saying the judge's decision was a blow to public health and a blow to democracy. Thankfully, however, it was not a blow to the judicial process and the legal system. That would have been the worst travesty.
Let's hope the temporary injunction becomes a permanent one. Perhaps then, the Breathe Free Oshkosh people will exercise more of a spirit of compromise rather than the pig-headed arrogance we've seen thus far. The smoking bans in Neenah and Fond du Lac did not get challenged in court. That should send a loud message and give one of the best reasons yet for Breathe Free to consider the restaurant owners' position and begin working on a compromise. And with citizen opinion split nearly 50/50 on this issue, one cannot afford to continue being pig-headed in their approach.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 3:27 PM
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