Kentucky’s post-Prohibition era ban on wine and liquor at grocery stores is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, saying the state has every right to restrict the sales, “just as a parent can reduce a child’s access to liquor.”
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overturned a 2012 ruling by a Louisville federal judge who had decided that allowing liquor sales in drug stores while banning them in groceries and convenience stores was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The appeals court ruled that Kentucky already limits access to wine and liquor by restricting the number of licensed retailers and that “the state can also reduce access by limiting the types of places that supply it — just as a parent can reduce a child’s access to liquor by keeping smaller amounts in the house and by locking it in the liquor cabinet.”
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Courier-Journal