Judge Snuffs Town Ban on Smoking

A judge Friday temporarily halted a suburban Washington community’s anti-smoking ordinance, which was considered one of the toughest in the nation.

The preliminary injunction, issued Friday by Circuit Judge Durke G. Thompson, blocks Friendship Heights from enforcing a ban on outdoor smoking in public places, including parks and sidewalks. Repeat offenders faced $100 fines.

Thompson said that because the community of 5,000 was a special taxing district and not a true municipality, its village council did not have the authority to pass the ordinance last year.

“In their zeal to curb smoking, they crossed the line,” said Timothy Maloney, an attorney for Friendship Heights smokers who challenged the ordinance. “It’s another victory for common sense, for personal liberty, whether you are a smoker or nonsmoker.”

Thompson said the intent of the law was “admirable” and referred several times in his opinion to the harmful effects of smoking.

“Overall, I felt that he was saying to us that the intention is good, but unfortunately you don’t have ability as a special tax district to do it,” Friendship Heights Mayor Al Muller said.

Muller, a medical doctor, had argued that the community had a civic duty to protect residents from the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke.

The mayor said he and the village council would confer with their attorneys at a March 12 meeting to decide how to respond to the ruling. He said he could not predict the ordinance’s ultimate fate.