Representative Hamilton suggests that is inappropriate for Minnesota legislators to protect any workers unless they protect all workers. He says the state's law should also be applied on reservation land.
Well, Minnesota can't pass laws for Iowa or Wisconsin either, but that certainly doesn't stop Minnesota from passing a whole lot of laws ranging from traffic and criminal laws to environmental protections. The reservations are sovereign nations. Minnesota has no more ability to pass laws for them than for our Canadian neighbors to the north or our neighboring states to south, east and west.
Contrary to what was stated by Rep. Hamilton, the real violation of civil liberties occurs when I cannot take my 5-year-old son, along with the rest of our family, to local so-called "family restaurants" because the smoke that leaks over from the smoking section into the non-smoking section triggers his severe asthma.
Rep. Hamilton also points out that smoking tobacco is a legal act. However, it is a common tenet of our society that we are not to exercise what we would otherwise have the right to do in a way that is injurious to others. And, of course, medical evidence abounds regarding the harmful nature of secondhand smoke.
Rep. Hamilton is trying to explain his actions. His explanation doesn't work. The Freedom to Breathe Act does protect all workers (under state law) from secondhand smoke, and Minnesota needs to take the lead on this issue before we fall further behind the rest of the country.
