Oklahoma Smokers

Developments since our last Tobacco War News update have been few but none the less significant, involving primarily the legal confrontation between the Osage Nation and the state of Oklahoma.

Currently the Osage Nation has two pending federal lawsuits against Oklahoma, the first in response to Governor Henry’s ‘emergency rule’ issued in January and a second in response to yet another ‘emergency rule’ issued in April.

The federal court in Tulsa in response to the initial lawsuit ordered arbitration between the Osage Nation and Oklahoma.

The second lawsuit, that which the Osage Nation filed in response to Henry’s April order spurred the Oklahoma Tax Commission during it May 1st meeting to suspend implementation of the rule ‘for at least 30 days’ while negotiations between the two parties took place. These negotiations are currently on-going. No agreement appears in the works.

Since the January ‘emergency rule’ is already in arbitration and April ‘emergency rule’ is now in federal court any action on the part of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and/or Governor Henry to apply the new rule will likely be met with another mandatory arbitration order from the federal courts. Currently both sides appear to be simply biding their time, hoping the entire mess will go away.

Since both ‘emergency rules’ violate the existing compact between the Osage Nation and Oklahoma and the latter rule has been suspended, the Osage Nation is not ’suffering’ an on-going loss. While negotiations are on-going Governor Henry and the Oklahoma Tax Commission have not as of yet been slapped with another mandatory arbitration order. This means the status-quo which existed prior to either emergency order is being maintained, at least temporarily.

On the restaurant front there have been no new reports of ‘the smoking police’ conducting outlandish raids against restaurants and it appears the ’smoking room’ inspections are moving forward.

Apparently many restaurant operators who thought that their new ’smoking rooms’ would pass health department muster have run into difficulty and are having to make additional modifications to gain approval. This is resulting in the restaurants having a smoking section one day, not the next and either later returning to having a smoking section or simply going smoke free altogether. Smokers wishing to dine in a smoker friendly restaurant are advised to call ahead to determine if the restaurant does in fact have a smoking section at that time.