Let’s Repeal These Bad Booze Laws Next
Happy Repeal Day! Indiana only lets gas stations sell beer if the beverages are warm. Ohio bans alcohol ads from featuring Santa Claus (and many states stop alcohol sales on Christmas). In Utah, mini liquor bottles are banned, but in Washington, D.C., purchasers must buy six at a time.
The prohibition era may be long past, but America is still awash with puritanical, patronizing, cronyist, and otherwise crappy booze laws. To celebrate the 85th anniversary of the U.S. alcohol ban’s repeal—and encourage us to stop repeating the era’s mistakes—the R Street Institute has ferreted out “America’s Dumbest Drinking Laws” that are still on the books.
“While prohibition has indeed been relegated to the dustbin of history, we’re still far from free when it comes to drinking,” write R Street’s Jarrett Dieterle and Daniel DiLoreto. “Even today, alcohol continues to be subjected to a host of nonsensical, onerous and sometimes downright silly restrictions.”
Dieterle and DiLoreto scouted bad laws to put together “the definitive list of the Worst Booze Laws in America,” singling out 12 top offenders. Among them:
• Alabama’s prohibition on alcohol labels that feature “a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner.”
• A federal law that prohibits distilleries on Native American land. “In 1834, Andrew Jackson signed a law banning distilleries on Native American lands,” notes the report:
During that time in American history, the condescending myth of the “drunken Indian” was pervasive and led to a whole host of paternalistic laws being implemented regarding tribal lands and booze. … In 2015, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation in Washington State attempted to open a distillery on their land, only to be rebuffed. They and others have tried to pressure Congress to scrap this outdated and offensive law but, so far, to no avail.
A bill passed by Congress last week would change this and is awaiting the president’s signature.
• Idaho’s ban on infused liquor.
• Virginia ratio rules requiring restaurants with liquor licenses to sell at least $45 of food and non-alcoholic beverages for every $55 worth of liquor—a rule that has thwarted craft cocktail bar scene in the state.