Reply #71: To the people who say "the government doesn't have a right to tell businesses what they can do":

[WildEyedLiberal]

Yes, it can and does. See: OSHA regulations, minimum wage, environmental regulations, health department codes.

A restaurant does NOT have the right to serve you spoiled meat. It does NOT have the right to refuse to force its kitchen staff to wash their hands after using the bathroom. It does not have the right to pay workers a dollar an hour. It does not have the right to refuse to serve someone because of their race. It does not have the right to dump its grease and byproducts into the city's water main.

You can disagree that banning smoking is necessary to ensure public health, but you can't argue that the government has "no right" to dictate certain business practices that affect public health, safety, and civil rights, because it has done so for about one hundred years.