Indiana Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Chilled Beer Sales Limit

An Indiana federal court has upheld a state statute that limits the sale of cold beer to package liquor stores, barring other beer sellers like convenience stores from selling beer cooler than room temperature. Ind. Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Ass’n v. Huskey,  No. 13-784 (S.D. Ind., order entered June 16, 2014). Indiana law divides beer sales permits into three categories: (i) a beer retailer permit for restaurants and bars; (ii) a dealer permit for package liquor stores; and (iii) a beer dealer permit for convenience stores, grocery stores and drug stores. The beer dealer permit places limits on retailers, prohibiting them from selling alcohol on Sunday, establishing a minimum age of clerks who can sell the beer, and barring them from selling beer cooled, chilled or iced. An association representing convenience stores challenged the constitutionality of the permit limitations in May 2013, arguing that the statute violated the association’s member convenience stores’ rights to due process of law and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the liberty clause of the state constitution. The court rejected the association’s arguments, holding that the statute (i) is not vague, either on its face or as applied to the association, so it does not violate the stores’ Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process; (ii) “applies uniformly to Plaintiffs’ business model—convenience stores, grocery stores, and drug stores that operate pursuant to beer dealer permits,” and thus does not violate the stores’ equal protection rights based on their business models; and (iii) has a rational basis for dividing beer dealers, retailers and liquor stores and giving them different privileges. Thus, the court granted the state’s motions for summary judgment on all counts and denied the plaintiffs’ motion for an injunction.

Issue 528