Hoosiers who want to buy cold beer will have to keep going to liquor stores to do so.
An effort to invalidate Indiana's cold-beer statute failed — again — following an appeals court decision that keeps the status quo: Grocery and convenience stores can only sell beer at room temperature.
The ruling comes more than two years after the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the state's decades-old law that prohibits gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores from selling cold beer, but allows liquor stores to do so.
The trade association claimed the law is discriminatory and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It also argued that the statute takes revenue away from its members.
Last year, federal district Judge Richard Young ruled that the state law is constitutional and Indiana has a rational basis for not allowing grocery and convenience stores to sell chilled beer. The trade association appealed the ruling, but the federal appeals court judges upheld it in a 3-0 decision.
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The state argued that liquor stores are subject to stricter regulations "designed to enhance the State's ability to limit and control the distribution of alcohol." For example, no one younger than 21 is allowed in liquor stores. Hours and days of operation also are restricted.
"Indiana explains that the goal of this regulatory scheme is to curb underage beer consumption by limiting the sale of immediately consumable cold beer," the opinion says.
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Originally Posted by Ron Paul
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