In a pathbreaking victory for public health, and a stunning defeat for tobacco interests, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted by over two to one (141 to 62) to support a very strong anti-smoking in public places bill. The House took a Senate Bill, Senate Bill 246, and greatly strengthened it from the version that had passed the Senate, although the bill was not as strong as it had been in Senator Stuart Greenleaf's or Representative Mike Gerber's original version.

The bill now goes back to the Senate, where Governor Rendell and anti-smoking activists will be lobbying very heavily for it and pro-tobacco interests will be working to delay a final vote for as long as is possible.

The House vote in favor of it was finalized at 8:31 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2007. The positive vote count trickled up as Speaker Dennis O'Brien obligingly left the voting board open so that everyone could take whatever time they wanted to make a final decision on how to vote on it.

The process of voting for the bill took four days and something like fifteen hours of debate. Three of the four days dealt with generally weakening amendments, all but two of which--a minor one allowing smoking at cigar exhibitions, and a significant exemption for private clubs--were ultimately defeated.

The high point of anti-smoking sentiment was a vote in support of the constitutionality of SB 246, which was approved 157 to 45. As an attorney who repeatedly speaks on the House floor on constitutional questions, I strongly endorsed the constitutionality of the bill and even quoted a famous British case that strongly influenced American law on the question of when a governmental action invalidates a private contract.

Opponents of the bill were generally somewhat defensive as they were well aware of the trends against them in both scientific research and public opinion. At one point they offered a facetious amendment to ban smoking entirely, so they could say they were more anti-smoking than the rest of us. This ridiculously transparent political ploy from people who were generally passionately against governmental regulation of smoking got only about 30 votes from House members.

On the final vote for Senate Bill 246, all Democrats in Southeastern Pennsylvania voted for it. So did all but three Southeastern Pennsylvania Republicans: Bob Godshall of Montgomery County, John Perzel of Philadelphia, and Curt Schroder of Chester County. The resistance to passage was strongest among representatives from different parts of rural Pennsylvania where suspicion of governmental action in the interest of public health--whether the issue is flouridation or gun control or smoking bans--runs strongest.