# Legality of refusing alcohol service to adults **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221 "2017-08-10T04:18:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2017, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/21 "2017-08-10T21:21:23Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I recall a Doper asking whether a bar can legally deny alcohol to a pregnant woman. Can’t recall what the answer to that was. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > They can serve alcohol to pregnant women. If the pregnant woman is already shit-faced they can refuse, same as they could for anyone else. The question isn’t whether the bar _can_ serve a pregnant woman but rather if they can refuse to do so. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/22 "2017-08-11T00:05:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The question isn’t whether the bar _can_ serve a pregnant woman but rather if they can refuse to do so. This and other posters talking about various local lays saying merchants/servers _can legally refuse_ to sell or serve alcohol under X,Y,Z circumstances doesn’t strike me as correct. I asked my wife who’s taken one of the required certification courses to bar tend and she confirmed what I thought. Generally, these particular circumstances to are not when the business CAN refuse service (they can already do that), but rather when they _are required to_ do so lest they he held liable for the negative consequences of serving/selling to that person. I don’t think (here’s where it probably varies by locality) the business automatically gets in trouble for selling to a person showing particular characteristics, but if something bad happens as a result of their selling to them the business is opened up to liability. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/23 "2017-08-11T02:09:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The question isn’t whether the bar _can_ serve a pregnant woman but rather if they can refuse to do so. What if it turns out she only looks pregnant? Now she’s been insulted, and she doesn’t have a drink. Note that at the worst time for drinking during pregnancy, most women don’t look pregnant at all. I don’t know what the down side is to refusing a drink to someone who’s entitled to have one, if anyone is. If it was me serving the drinks, and the person wasn’t already inebriated, I’d serve it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/24 "2017-08-11T02:11:19Z")
How does that help to answer the question? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/25 "2017-08-11T09:16:51Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > How does that help to answer the question? Well, what would be the grounds? Are they going to ask her if she’s pregnant before they refuse to serve her, or are they just going to say, “No. You have some milk”? Or, “No, get out of my bar”? As a bartender, you pretty much decide who you will serve. But I’m saying, if you have objections to serving a pregnant woman, you might as well just not serve alcohol to any women of childbearing age at all, because you can’t tell. I will say that once when rather heavily pregnant I went to a bar with a friend for brunch. She ordered a Bloody Mary and I ordered a Virgin Mary (or a Bloody Shame), and about a third of the way through our drinks we realized they’d been switched. We told the waitress, who went into an absolute frenzy of apology and in fact comped our whole meal, drinks and eggs Benedict and everything. So I have no idea if she’d have plopped down a proper drink in front of me if I’d asked for it. I’m thinking maybe not. But if I’d been in there six months earlier, equally but not obviously pregnant and with the kid in a much more critical stage of development, I bet I’d have got that drink. Come to think of it the kid that resulted from that pregnancy is a bit weird. 21 and still living at home. Maybe I should sue the bar. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/26 "2017-08-11T10:44:28Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > As others have said, stores can refuse service for many arbitrary reasons. You don’t have a “right” to buy anything from any store. Stores however can’t refuse a sale solely because, you’re Asian, gay, etc. > > I keep hearing stories of people buying alcohol while accompanied by a person that looks underage. If the clerk _thinks_ the alcohol might be for the underage-looking person, they can card the underage-looking person and can refuse the sale if no ID is produced or they are underage. Not sure if this is store policy or state/local law. I can kinda sorta see why they would do this, but wouldn’t people just quickly learn to not bring their underage (or no-ID) companion through the checkout line with them? 😕 Well, a friend of mine didn’t want to leave his six y/o daughter alone in his car, on a 100+ degree day in Dallas, TX, while he ran in to a package store to pick up libations for that evening’s festivities; the cashier refused the sale because he was accompanied by a minor. A local convenience store refuses to sell to this one guy from Canada, working locally, with an international driver’s license (plus his Canadian driver’s license, too). The guy’s only here on a temp/contract job, staying at the hotel a block up the street from the store. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/27 "2017-08-11T14:17:01Z")
Meanwhile, yesterday a couple of Saudi’s were shocked I took their ID for an alcohol sale. I told them their ID didn’t have to be American, it just had to be sufficient to be legal proof of age and that I could actually determine their date of birth from it. Couple of nice probably Muslim guys buying pork chops and alcohol - isn’t America great? Whether or not a store takes ID other than US driver’s licenses could be a matter of store policy or could be a matter of the clerk’s training/opinion/(mis)understanding of the laws and rules. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/28 "2017-08-11T14:19:07Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Well, a friend of mine didn’t want to leave his six y/o daughter alone in his car, on a 100+ degree day in Dallas, TX, while he ran in to a package store to pick up libations for that evening’s festivities; the cashier refused the sale because he was accompanied by a minor. Either the Cashier or the Store Owner/Manager is nuts in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/29 "2017-08-11T14:54:32Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > You don’t have a “right” to buy anything from any store. Stores however can’t refuse a sale solely because, you’re Asian, gay, etc. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that at least for now there are many states in which being gay is not a protected class, at least until SCOTUS says otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![RaffArundel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/87869e/32.png) [@RaffArundel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaffArundel)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/30 "2017-08-11T15:20:22Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Either the Cashier or the Store Owner/Manager is nuts in this case. It was probably corporate policy. Here is what the state agency says about it: [http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/enforcement/age\_verification.asp](http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/enforcement/age_verification.asp) TABC is known for stiff fines and pulling licenses for businesses that sell to minors. The have the right to arrest the person making the sale, although I don’t know how often they do so. But as you can see from the link, they don’t actually require everyone in a group to be of age. It appears that the only two cases where it is illegal to serve/sell in Texas are minors and intoxicated individuals. Since, I don’t believe there (never heard of) are any additional laws on the book, I would assume as long as they didn’t violate the Civil Rights Act, a place could refuse to serve. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221/31 "2017-08-11T16:54:43Z")
I think this guy was refused the chance to buy more beer [:: Funniest thing you ever seen! /drunk i convenience store! :: - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_oBYNb6UU) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-refusing-alcohol-service-to-adults/793221.md?page=1)