June 18, 2003 BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York's much disputed ban on Internet cigarette sales took effect without apparent incident Wednesday as American Indian and other online vendors awaited action in the latest legal challenge.

A federal judge was scheduled to hear arguments on a request for a temporary restraining order Thursday to stop the state from enforcing the ban.

In the meantime, sellers said they would comply.

"We are law-abiding businesses, and we believe we have been operating within the law, even though we believe the law is unconstitutional and unfair," said Ali Davoudi, president of the Online Tobacco Retailers Association.

The group, along with a Seneca Indian retailer and two disabled smokers, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming the ban is discriminatory.

"We will wait to have our day in court," Davoudi said.

Law enforcement officers were on alert for potential protests on the Seneca Indian Nation's two western New York reservations, the site of past, sometimes violent, clashes over taxation issues.

More than half of the approximately 200 New York-based Web sites offering cut-rate cigarettes for sale are run by Indian businessmen.

In April 1997, demonstrators burned tires to close roads and skirmished with state troopers to protest the state's attempt to collect taxes on reservation tobacco and gasoline sales. The Pataki administration later quietly abandoned the tax collection attempt.

"We would far rather have this settled in the courts," said Seneca Larry Ballagh, owner of Traveling Smoke. But he and others did not rule out other means of expressing their opposition.

"We are a nation being attacked by another nation," he said, "and like all nations being attacked, we will respond accordingly."

Indian tribes argue they are sovereign nations and immune from state tax laws.

State Police Lt. Glenn Miner said there had been no incidents on the reservations as of Wednesday afternoon.

The 2000 legislation which has never been enforced because of legal challenges prohibits private trucking companies from delivering Internet and mail-order shipments of cigarettes to consumers. The law does not prevent vendors from using the U.S. Postal Service for cigarette deliveries, a loophole some businesses were taking advantage of, Davoudi said.

Tom Bergin, spokesman for the state Taxation and Finance Department, said the first day of enforcement was uneventful.

"Reasonable people will comply with the law," he said.