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• Federal Appeals Court Upholds Colorado Smoking Ban 

A federal appeals court rejected a challenge of Colorado's smoking ban on Tuesday, concluding that state lawmakers acted rationally when they exempted smoking lounges at Denver International Airport from the ban.

In November, a coalition of over 500 bars, taverns, fraternal orders and other groups asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ban. They argued Colorado's Clean Indoor Air Act discriminated against them by banning smoking in their buildings while still allowing it casinos and cigar bars as well as the DIA lounges.

The law has since been changed to ban smoking in casinos and that objection is now moot, Judge Mary Beck Briscoe wrote in Tuesday's ruling.

Unless a law infringes on fundamental rights, Briscoe said states have "wide latitude" in deciding who is and who isn't covered by it.

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