IN Petroleum Mkters & Convenience Store Ass’n v. Cook

An association of Indiana convenience stores filed suit seeking to invalidate a state law that restricts the sale of cold packaged beer. The suit claims the law violates the Equal Protection Clause because some kinds of stores may sell cold beer but grocery and convenience stores may not. The district court upheld the law; the Seventh Circuit affirmed. While rejecting the state’s argument that the Twenty-first Amendment gives it “nearly absolute” authority to regulate alcohol sales, the court held that the cold-beer statute is subject to rational-basis review and survives that lenient standard. To succeed on its claim, the Association would have to “negative every conceivable basis which might support” the statutory scheme. The Association’s policy arguments for allowing cold-beer sales by grocery and convenience stores are matters for the Indiana legislature, not the federal judiciary. View "IN Petroleum Mkters & Convenience Store Ass'n v. Cook" on Justia Law