Our friends on the other side of the river had a good time with their fundraier event this past weekend! They’re working to help bar owner Robert Ripley (of the Bullseye Saloon) with his defense fund as the state is going after him for violating the smoking ban by hosting “theatre nights” at his place.
We here at BtBWI salute Robert for doing the right thing and Sheila and Shawn who helped put the shindig together. We hope to see more from this!
Check out the video from the event and their website:
Filed under: Defiance, Get Active!, Good News, Heroes, Minnesota Ban News, Rights, Small Business Owners | Tagged: minnesota smoking ban, robert ripley, smoking bans, theatre nights
District Judge Jerome Abrams seemed willing to entertain the idea that the performances — where patrons from the suburbs to the Iron Range have bought buttons, dubbed themselves actors and lit up in bars — fall within a hastily added exception to the statewide ban originally intended to apply to venues such as the Guthrie Theater.
“I’m very accepting of … Shakespeare in the Park,” Abrams said at one point. “I don’t think you need a proscenium arch or a thrust stage to call it ‘theater.’ ”
A lawyer for the Minnesota Department of Health, which brought the case, said allowing the shows to go on would create an exception that swallows up the rule. Last month, the state sued the rural Elko bar Bullseye Saloon, claiming it violated state law because its daylong “Unconstitutional Ban” performances lacked costumes, a script or other indications of traditional theater.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_9174672?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com
It sounds like the Dept. of Health is trying to violate free speech and freedom of association here. But what’s a little thing like the constitution next to public health?