Smoking will be allowed in South Dakota bars and restaurants while both sides of the smoking ban take their case to court. Circuit Judge Mark Barnett issued a stay on the smoking ban Monday afternoon, meaning the law will not go into effect until the legal process runs its course.

At one-thirty Monday afternoon Secretary of State Chris Nelson officially signed the paperwork to de-certify the petition smoking ban opponents turned in. But shortly after that Judge Barnett issued the stay, officially starting the legal battle over the ban.

A courtroom in Pierre is now center stage for South Dakota's debate over the smoking ban. Bar and casino owners filed the eight page lawsuit asking for Circuit Judge Mark Barnett to certify the petition and put the smoking ban on the 2010 ballot.

The main argument from opponents of the ban focuses on 25 hundred signatures thrown out because of improper expiration dates from the notary on several petition sheets. Since they had a partial expiration date, petitioners are asking the court to determine the date written on the sheet is enough to 'satisfy' state law.

The bar and casino owners argue the purpose of the notary signing the petitions is to establish the 'genuineness' of the signatures and allow the public to contact the notary to verify the signatures. And petition organizers say the notaries in questioned gave enough information.

Finally the lawsuit cites a state law that says petitions should be 'liberally construed', or not overly analyzed, so the real intention of the petition is not thrown out on a 'technicality.'

And petition organizers hope that law will help get the ban back on the ballot.

No court date has been set but the Attorney General and the Hughes County Clerk of Courts are expecting that to happen sometime in the next few days.