THE RIGHT TO PURSUE HAPPINESS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

In the wake of legislation in Rolling Hills, CA, local homeowners lost the right to have a smoke in their own yards. ¹ In Morris County, NJ, in "the first case in the nation to deal with the rights of smokers to smoke in their own homes," a 60-year-old widow was sued by her Yuppie neighbors in a Dover cooperative. Claiming, among other things, that "secondhand smoke" from a downstairs apartment, had been the "cause" of an unfortunate ectopic pregnancy, the couple first demanded that the widow refrain from smoking after 4 in the afternoon. ² A teacher in a Morristown, NJ condominium has been similarly, though less famously, harassed. ³ Other cases abound.

(1) Per Californians for Smokers Rights.
(2) "Dust-up in Dover," NY Times 4/28/94.
(3) American Smokers Alliance white paper, 3/16/95. PO Box 189, Bellevue, CO 80512

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