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TOPEKA — Attorney General Steve Six has asked the Kansas Court of Appeals to knock down the decision of a Shawnee County District Court judge to temporarily exempt some private clubs from the statewide public smoking ban that became effective in most places on July 1.

Judge Franklin Theis issued a temporary injunction in favor of 31 class A and B private clubs that were granted licenses after Jan. 1, 2009. Legislators when they first wrote the statewide smoking ban bill in 2009 exempted private clubs licensed before that date. But the ban didn’t become law until this year and clubs licensed after the grandfather date but before the new law became effective cried foul, saying they were being treated unfairly.

Theis in his ruling on the club’s request for injunction said that the Jan. 1, 2009 date was “at best, an unintended consequence” and “wholly arbitrary.”

He granted the temporary injunction in response to a suit filed for the Downtown Bar and Grill, a class B club in Tonganoxie that was licensed in May 2009.

Assistant Attorney General Tim Riemann, acting on behalf of the state, appealed Theis’ decision and the Kansas Court of Appeals received and filed the appeal Friday.

“The Attorney General decided to appeal that ruling rather than proceed further at the lower court level,” said Gavin Young, a spokesman for Attorney General Steve Six. “The key point of contention here is the Legislature’s decision to place a grandfather clause on one of the exceptions to the statewide smoking ban. Our office is going to continue to vigorously defend the Legislature’s actions.”

Young said the Attorney General’s brief to the appellate court was due Sept. 22. The Tonganoxie bar’s brief would be due 30 days after that.

The Shawnee County case is separate from one pending in Sedgwick County District Court.

A hearing on a temporary restraining order against implementing the smoking ban in Wichita’s “smoker friendly” businesses is scheduled for Thursday. Trial has been set for Aug. 30.

The Sedgwick County restraining order was granted until the court could rule on an argument that Wichita’s local smoking ordinance is stricter than the state law and therefore can legally supersede it.