By: Ray
From the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board this morning:
Here's the gist:
The stakes are high enough, the outrage fresh enough and, given the unpredictability of our current U.S. Supreme Court, the law fuzzy enough that the flyer the Utah Hospitality Association is taking by suing the state of Utah over one of its most recent, and most ridiculous, liquor laws is well worth the effort.I'm glad to see industry taking on this "job killing legislation" passed by our esteemed free market politicians. Using their own argument for allowing cake fireworks, "We can't police it, everybody wants them, and they just buy them in Wyoming and idaho anyway," ought to be reason enough!
Understandably peeved over SB314, a new law that treats adult customers as children and honest merchants as drug pushers, the professional association that represents clubs, restaurants and such has given up trying to talk reason to the Legislature, governor and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and has taken the lot of them to federal court.
Common sense and modern times are on the side of the barkeeps and restaurateurs. But, in Utah, that and five bucks will get you a beer. If you can find one. The law limiting the number of bar and dining club licenses by not only the size of Utah's population, but also by the number of law enforcement officers it hires, has left the supply of licenses trailing far behind demand. That damages the state's economy for no reason other than a groundless claim to be saving innocent Utahns from the clutches of Demon Rum.
