Blue Laws and Corporatism

The Indiana General Assembly is not currently in session. In fact, they are hardly ever in session. This past year, they spent a lot of time debating a budget for the state. They required a special session to get that done. One thing they didn't address was Sunday sales of alcohol.

Indiana, like many other states, still has "blue laws" on the books which regulate and/or prohibit the sale of alcohol in various ways. A study committee was established to hold hearings, review and recommend potential legislation for the upcoming session. The Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues convened over the past several weeks and voted on their recommendations on Tuesday, October 20.

The study committee has voted to recommend no changes to existing law. The two key proposals (which were shot down) were to allow Sunday sales of alcohol (defeated 7-4) and to allow other businesses besides liquor stores to sell cold beer (defeated 11-0). The full story can be read here. I have not been able to locate any sort of formal report at this point in time.

This particular issue and story has several things that I find distasteful. First, there is never a good time to legislate morality. The 18th Amendment was a failure. The purchase of alcohol on Sunday does not harm anyone as a threat to life, liberty or property. That is unless you are a liquor store in Indiana who is protected by government corporatism. That leads to my second point. The liquor store lobby does not want reform because they a) have a protected monopoly on cold beer sales, and b) have lower operating costs compared to their competitors because they stay closed on Sundays. Third, I noticed this vote was pretty much on party line. I'd like to see the final report before I pass judgment on that, but it smells fishy to me.

So, the forces of the nanny state have joined the forces of corporate lobbies to deny Hoosiers the ability to get a cold six-pack of beer at the local grocery store on Sundays. This is not over yet as this was just a study committee. However, I think this is a strong indication that this battle won't be won in the 2010 General Assembly.