i found this one interesting...
If the Metro Council—or any other local governing body in the state of Tennessee—were to pass a law regulating the use of
tobacco products in restaurants, bars, malls, office buildings or private colleges, the ordinance would violate state law and be invalid. Why? Because in 1994, when the legislature was passing a series of laws meant to reduce teen smoking,
tobacco industry lobbyists quietly slid in an amendment effectively preventing local governments from passing “any law or regulation of tobacco products.” The tobacco industry wanted the local preemption law passed so that it wouldn’t have to worry about local ordinances all over the state (which it does in many states, most notably California).
Today, clean-air lobbyists say that they have disliked the “local preemption” law ever since it passed. They say that they haven’t tried hard to get it changed because they were too busy trying to get some portion of the national tobacco settlement set aside for smoking prevention (a battle they lost last year). “We would absolutely love to get rid of the preemption law,” says John Williams, who represents the Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee (CHART). “This law strikes at the heart of the local governments’ right and obligation to pass laws that are appropriate and right for the people of their city and county.”
Many private business owners have voluntarily taken steps to ban smoking in malls and certain parts of restaurants, but Williams says that his group would like local communities to be able to ban smoking in bars and restaurants if they choose. “They have done this in California, and we believe it has worked out well,” he says. “It has especially worked out well for people who work in bars and who have to deal with second-hand smoke in those places.”
But former tobacco industry lobbyist Cleve Smith says that the tobacco preemption is a good law. “What the law says is that private property owners can decide for themselves what to do about smoking,” he says. “If a restaurant owner wants to ban smoking, let them. If a mall wants to ban smoking, let them. But in California, local governments were banning smoking all over the place, putting a lot of folks out of business in the process.”