Yeah, I know. Because it’s the law where I live (Michigan). From what I could find doing some quick internet research, it’s the law in at least New York State as well.
But why is it the law?
I can at least grasp the logic of stopping our alcohol sales at 2 a.m. It’s designed to curb alcohol consumption at a time when the potential for drinking and driving is up. You have people out enjoying the nightlife in bars, getting a glow on, and they might be encouraged to get even more out of control if they didn’t have a cut-off point. (Which I know some states don’t. I’d be interested to know if our drinking curfew makes our alcohol-related accident or fatality rates any lower than those states without one, or with a later one.)
But I have more trouble understanding the noon-on-Sunday law. I went to my grocery store last Sunday, buying lots of other groceries, and they had to put my 6-pack of beer back, because it was only 11:15 a.m.
Was the law designed way back in the 1800s so church-goers wouldn’t have to see drunkards of questionable moral turpitude?* Doesn’t make sense. A resourceful drunkard will just have the booze needed to get wasted on-hand and not have to go buy it Sunday morning.
The law doesn’t stop anything alcohol-related. It’s just an inconvenience.
*(It should be noted that I have no idea whether I just used the word “turpitude” correctly. Nor am I even sure it is an actual word. I just wanted to give it a try.)
Such laws about alcohol purchase are remnants of an earlier time when temperance was a big issue along with Sabbitarianism. (Hey, there’s my big word.)
In some places, even today, there is a significant portion of the population that believes that you shouldn’t engage in any commercial activity on a Sunday.
The noon time was probably the result of some early 20th century or late 19th century compromise between those who wanted to sell alcohol at the regular time and those who didn’t want it sold at any time on Sunday.
Why can’t I buy beer in a store after 9p.m. in Milwaukee, the drunkest place on Earth, but I can sit in a bar and drink it until 2:30a.m.? The answer is the Tavern League, a powerful political force here in the Land of Cheeseheads & beer farts. The state says beer can be sold until midnight (the League is try to change that) but they’ve influenced a lot of cities and towns to enact ordinances limiting beer sales at stores. They want you going to a bar to get your booze. Ironically, you can buy carry out beer (six & 12 packs) at bars here until 12mid, but only at a bar, not a store.
But as far as your area goes…I dunno!
Perhaps the Tavern Legue in your area got the law passed, thinking a lot of people buy beer and sit at home watching sports on sunday. Can’t have that. If you have to go to a bar and drink, you might sit there all day and watch the game.
Or maybe 100 years ago some jughead bible thumpers didn’t want folks showing up drunk for church and got the law passed.
Call your state senator or representative and asked them. It was one of them chuckle heads who passed the silly law. Demand an explination as to it’s purpose.
Here in Minnesota, liquor stores are closed on Sundays. I live in Duluth, and until recently, there was a city ordinance that liquor stores couldn’t be open past 8 PM on weeknights.
Some friends and I were in a bar in Albany, NY one night, lazily getting drunk and talking. One of us had brought a deck of cards and we started to play hearts, no money involved. When the bartender noticed, however, he told us we weren’t allowed to.
Is this just bad policy on the bar’s part (the place was almost empty, and we were certainly drinking our fair share) or is it New York State’s bad policy (card playing and gambling are not the same thing . . . and why the hell should keno be allowed then?)?
Anyway, the answer to this is to brief to warrant it’s own thread, I think, and it’s related to the OP.
Before I met my ex (from Indinapolis) I had never in my life heard the term “Sunday Beers”. I think people on the left coast like to get drunk but still remain lucid enough to vote donw any B/S liquor laws that restrict completely the sale of booze to certain days of the week.
Mostly, it appears that a lot of places with restrictive Sunday boozing laws had them made up years ago by a bunch of religious people, who always know best how others should live their lives. Politics being the way it is, most civic leaders prefer not to touch or alter any religious based laws for fear that every fanatic in the State will start calling them associates of Satan – like most aren’t already – and might wreck their chances for reelection.
That’s like where I live no bar may be within 500 feet of a church or house of worship. Around here, churches are popping up like weeds, which eventually will cause some problems. One incident that I know of dealt with a small bar selling beer and wine and making a living by selling cheap meals, tacos, hot sauce and home made beef jerky, had a church go in across the way from it.
Now, since the bar was there first, one might figure it had the priority, but it did not. Once the church was complete, the parishioners grumbled because on Sunday afternoons while they did churchly things, other folks went to the bar and consumed beers. So the county went in and shut them down!
A small store is still there, which sells 40s and beer after 1:00 on Sunday afternoon, but no one can sit there and drink. The bar moved into the next county, well away from any churches.
Blue Laws are a holdover. In many places they have been changed, but here in the south they are still pretty strong. Basically, people were supposed to be in church on Sunday, and most people were.
Here in Georgia, you can buy no alcohol on Sunday. This has been interesting lately, because all the grocery stores have signs reminding you that Near Year’s eve and Christmas Eve are on Sundays this year, so you should plan ahead.
When I lived in both Mississippi and Tennessee most stores didn’t open until noon or 1PM on Sunday. The exceptions were convenience stores and grocery stores. The convenience stores did not have the square footage to be affected by the law, and the grocery stores were exempted. Included in the exemption were the “super” stores-such as Wal-Mart-that included a full grocery.
Here in Western Massachusetts, there is a “no alcohol sold on Sundays” rule, but this only applies to stores, not bars (this seems common in other states, from what people have said). However, lately they have been loosening up a bit in two circumstances:
Stores within a certain distance of state borders can get a special exception because they have to compete with stores in states where sales on Sundays are legal.
Sundays around the holiday season are, for some reason, exceptions as well.
Eventually, these blue laws will all be repealed. But you still can’t buy Jarts (oops, wrong thread).
wine and liquor only from state run stores (I believe the hours vary but I’ve never seen one open past 9 pm)
cases and kegs of beer only from distributors
six packs only at six pack shops (which have the widest range of hours but limit the number of sixpacks that can be purchased by an individual in one visit)
bars close at 2 am.
It made shopping for parties in college a pain as you invariably had to visit 3 different stores to get everything you needed. I still get a kick out of being able to buy a bottle of wine along with my groceries now that I’ve moved out of state.
My guess is bad policy. My friends and I have played cards (not for money) in bars here in NYC, with no trouble. But we’ve also played cards (not for money) in Pennsylvania and been told to stop.
I think some bar owners are just nervous. Weird, though, since I’ve often seen people betting over dart and billiard games in such bars, and no one stops that.
Here in St. Paul, I can go to a grocery store 24/7 and buy bud, miller, and Meisterbrau by the pallet, but I can’t buy a single bottle of anything worth drinking after 8 p.m. or on Sundays, because they only sell nasty, evil-smelling beer in the grocery stores. Besides, it’s too cold for fizzball.
Until 1978 you could not buy a mixed drink at a bar or restaurant in NC. You had to bring your own booze in a bottle from home and they would sell you coke or something else to mix with it. Before they changed the law , some religious people said that mixed drinks would lead to “a bar on every corner” and some other nonsense.
Even now places that sell mixed drinks must bring in at least 51% of their total income from food sales. If they don’t meet that level they must be a “private club” to sell mixed drinks. That means they have to charge a membership fee which is normally a buck a year. You have to wait 1 day to be a member, but you can get in as a guest of a current member.
I heard from a friend of mine who had moved into Georgia and was stunned when he mentioned that he lived in a dry county, where no bars nor booze selling was allowed at all. Since it was not illegal to own or drink the stuff, everyone ran across the county line, where smart businessmen had placed bars and package stores, bought their booze in bulk and went back home.
I thought the concept of a dry county to be as archaic as using stocks for punishment in the town square. He said everyone he knows drinks, but the city rulers will not change the dry law, enacted some time around prohibition.
I figure the moonshiners are doing a boom business there.
Dry counties are still common. I’ve heard that Jack Daniels is made in a dry county in TN.
When I came to Houston in 1978, there were areas that were dry. The dry/wet decision was made at the precinct level, not the county level.
The dry areas do not prohibit alcohol comsuption, they just try to get people to drink somewhere else. This is similar to no alcohol in city parks or at some sections of the beach.
Separation of church and state can not be used to fight these laws. The laws do not regulate religion, or to most people, anything religous, in any way.
Nope, won’t work. The 21st Amendment explicitly gives states the right to regulate the sale of alcohol.
Your best hope would be for the Federal government to do something along the lines of the minimum drinking age, where highway funds are withheld if you don’t have a minimum drinking age of 21. That approach has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
The 21st Amendment gives states the right to regulate alcohol, but it’s not clear that courts would interpret #21 as abrogating the 1st Amendment prohibition on establishment of religion.
I seem to recall a number of lawsuits years ago challenging blue laws in general (not just alcohol restrictions) on church-state grounds, but they weren’t generally very successful. Courts managed to rationalize the laws on all sorts of non-religious grounds, such as providing a day of rest for retail employees.
Here in Texas, we had a blue law that required stores (not including grocery stores) to choose between shutting down on Saturday or Sunday. Naturally, 99% of them chose to stay closed on Sunday. Man, Christmas shopping was a bitch back then. But the Legislature finally moved into the 18th century and dumped the blue law in 1985 or so.
However, Texas liquor stores are still required to close on Sunday. No Saturday/Sunday option, either. If all you sell is beer and wine, Sunday’s okay, but anything harder and you’re closed. I think beer and wine sales also start later (noon?) on Sunday than the rest of the week, but seriously, how bad do you have to want that Old Milwaukee on Sunday morning to give a rat’s patootie?