Topeka ? The legal cloud hanging over the city’s smoking ban may be lifted by early June.

The Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments this afternoon on a case by Lawrence bar owner Dennis Steffes, who contends the city’s smoking ban is unconstitutional.

The court said the earliest it would issue a ruling on whether the ban – which prohibits smoking in essentially all indoor work places – is legal would be June 8.

Billy Rork, an attorney for Steffes, argued that the city’s ban illegally supercedes state law, which he believes gives business owners the right to designate areas where smoking is allowed.

Toni Wheeler, the city’s director of legal services, argued that state law clearly gives the city the authority to pass local restrictions on smoking that are more stringent than the statewide law.

For more on the story, see 6News at 6 p.m. tonight and tomorrow’s Journal-World.