There are sites out there that sell booze and deliver it to your house. On the page it says that a person over 21 has to sign for the delivery. Onto the questions:
If it turns out that the purchaser is under 21 who gets busted? The company that delivers it or the site that sold it?
If it is a company outside the U.S. isn’t placing laws on the trade of goods violate the constitution?
Legally speaking where does the actual transaction take place? Is it the location of the seller? The buyer? The server?
How do the shipping companies know that they are shipping booze? Is there a special package/permit or what ever that differentiates them?
Does the shipping company have to go through the same vigor of verifying age that bars/liquor stores do? How about states where your License is scanned do they portable versions of those?
IANAL, but my guess would be that in most states it’s not technically illegal to purchase alcohol if you are under 21, just to purchase AND receive it or something like that. i.e. say I was 20 years old and hosted a business dinner in a restaurant for my business partners who are over 21. Would I not be allowed to pay for THEIR wine? So to answer your #1, most likely the delivery company because there MIGHT (just a WAG) not be anything illegal about a minor ORDERING alcohol.
Which part of the constitution would it violate? We place tarrifs, taxes and duties on all sorts of products, and that’s reasonably tolerated, so I don’t see where you are coming from.
I’d venture a guess that when ordering booze online you have two transcations, the order and the delivery. Which laws are broken when will depend on your jurisdiction, and as a matter of fact, no laws might be broken at all in some states if a minor orders and receives booze via UPS/FedEx.
Shipping companies know that they are shipping booze because there’s a special label/sticker that is used to indicate they need to check ID.
In most states (if not all), both parties are guilty of violations. I can’t sell booze to someone under 21. And if someone under 21 buys booze, that’s a crime. Ask the Bush twins (although they were charged with using a fake ID, so presumably they were stopped before they got the booze>)
Congress has the power to regulate foreign commerce. Just because you might be able to buy something legally when you’re in another country doesn’t mean you can buy it in the U.S.
Don’t know well enough to answer this question. Mail order sales are always the subject of Federal court cases as the courts try to define just where everything took place.
A shipping company requires you to tell them what you’re shipping. Shipping companies don’t want to be used to smuggle illegal goods. It tends to be bad for business.
Don’t know.
I would also say that the laws will vary by state. The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, gave states the right to regulate the sale and importation of alcoholic beverages into each state.
We as in the federal government does this but the drinking age is a state law. IIRC correctly only the federal government can regulate inter-national commerce.
Well I know for certain a minor can’t posses alcohol so a law would be broken by the minor recieving the alcohol would be breaking a law.
Interesting, do you know this from personal experience?
Does it matter that the laws in question here are at the state level?
I don’t have much experience with shipping packages but I don’t remember them ever asking specifically what was in it. I suppose it would be different if a company was solely shipping booze.
Ah scratch question two the 21st amendment prohibits importation, transportation or possesion against the laws of the states. The amendment supercedes the other parts of the constitution becuase it was added latter right?
The 21st Amendment doesn’t as much supersede as it just modifies a Congressional power.
The big court case people are waiting on is about New York’s prohibition of its resdients buying wine from other states and having it shipped directly to New York addresses.
Either or both. The laws of New York can probably serve as an example in this regard:
In other words, the delivery company has to card just like a bar. Since the selling company can’t verify the purchaser’s age physically, I would imagine that their responsibility would be limited to contracting with a shipper that promised to do so. If they failed to take that minimal step, they would be “causing alcohol to be delivered to a minor” in violation of the above law.
Both. Both states would have power to pass laws affecting those aspects of the transaction which occur within their boundaries.
I’m sure the seller makes this clear when they convey the packages for delivery.
I’m not familiar with license scanning, so I don’t know.