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Excerpts from: Anti-smoking group files motion to join case

By ROBERT STERN, The Times [06/30/00]
 

              TRENTON -- The anti-smoking coalition New Jersey
              Breathes has fired the latest salvo in Princeton's legal
              battle to institute the state's strictest smoking ban.

              The coalition filed a motion in state Superior Court here
              late Wednesday indicating that it seeks to intervene in the
              case as a friend of the court on behalf of the Princeton
              Regional Health Commission.
              case.

              "He knows all too well that we're ready to expose the
              (Virginia-based National Smokers Alliance) for the
              (tobacco)-industry-backed flak group that they are," he
              said.

              The National Smokers Alliance has been heavily funded by
              Big Tobacco, which critics claim launched the group in
              1993.

              The Princeton Regional Health Commission last week filed
              a motion to have the alliance removed from the lawsuit.
              he insists.

              A hearing to decide whether New Jersey Breathes will be
              allowed to participate in the Princeton case is scheduled
              for July 7 before Superior Court Assignment Judge Linda R.
              Feinberg.

              Conroy said that New Jersey Breathes "has a long history
              in this state of being allowed to participate as a friend of
              the court in smoking issues."

             Michael J. Herbert, the attorney for the health commission,
              said the Princeton panel would welcome New Jersey
              Breathes' alliance.

              As a friend of the court, the group would be able to offer
              evidence and expert testimony bolstering the commission's
              position without becoming a litigant in the case, Herbert
              said.

              But the health commission can prevail in the case --
              several commission members are doctors -- even without
              New Jersey Breathes' participation, Herbert said. But the
              commission lacks the resources available to New Jersey
              Breathes that could provide expert witnesses and
              mountains of additional expert resources to help defend the
              smoking ban, he said.

              The four plaintiffs filed suit June 8 to block a workplace
              smoking ban the health commission adopted one week
              earlier. The suit's chief allegations are that the smoking
              ban illegally interferes with smokers' rights and violates
              business owners' property rights.

             The ordinance, designed to protect employees and the
              public from second-hand smoke in both Princeton Borough
              and Township, would prohibit smoking in all restaurants,
              bars and private clubs, as well as in hotels and motels that
              lack separate ventilation systems for smoking and
              nonsmoking rooms.