The idea of "natural rights" is that people have rights independent of political or legal institutions that can only be enforced by the individual or by voluntary agreement. For example, one has the natural right to defend themselves from a murderer, but not the right to force a policeman to defend them. However, a policeman is obligated to protect their citizens from murder because they are contractually obligated. Another example of someone misunderstanding the idea of rights is how some believe that free healthcare is a right. While those that say this may have great intentions, and the idea of it would perhaps help many people succeed under a failed system, free healthcare is not a right because it requires taxing others in order to pay for this healthcare. It would also include forcing doctors to change what they wish to charge for their services, ultimately stealing from the doctor. While doctors and drug-makers can and will be unfair to those who actually need their services; the best way to prevent this is through letting these doctors compete for lower costs in the free market. Smoking tobacco is similar to this, as some could argue that tobacco takes the away another person's right to breathe clean air in private businesses and privately-owned land. The only difference is that people have the choice to leave these privately-owned areas and walk a small distance toward another piece of land with cleaner air. To prohibit business owners and citizens from doing what they wish on private land is much more a restriction of their natural rights than those who wish to stay away from others who smoke and have the choice to walk away.

People would be outraged if the city prevented people from doing otherwise legal activities in their own homes, so why is it any different in a business? A business is nothing more than a building someone owns, much like a home, where they decide to provide a service and/or sell a product. Where does the city have the authority to tell a business what to do when most would agree they have no authority telling them what they may do in their own home? The difference is the idea of public rights and individual rights. While bad choices from some individuals who make up the public can ultimately harm others, they will not harm the entirety of the public if the non-consenting portions of the public have the option to step away from those that are harmful. Unless everyone in America smokes tobacco, a demand remains for non-smoking businesses to exist.