At long last, it’s about time. The Minnesota Legislature just might repeal the prohibition against Sunday liquor sales in the state.
The lame law was passed in 1935, two years before the nation finally repealed a national failure called Prohibition, the banishment of all liquor, which resulted only in the rise of bootlegging and gang crimes.
Last Monday, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted to repeal the ban on an 85-45 vote. Now, the ball is in the Senate’s court.
Thank you to Rep. Jenifer Loon, (R-Eden Prairie) for advocating and pushing for the repeal. Also thank you to House Speaker Rep. Kurt Daudt (R-Springfield), who after supporting the ban decided to push for its repeal in 2017.
Even appeal opponent Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R-St. Paul), who vows to vote against repeal, seems to have conceded defeat, now or in the near future.
“Without a doubt,” he said, “each year it feels like there are more and more people who want to pass it (the repeal).”
Throughout the decades, lawmakers have gone to ridiculous attempts to block repeal of the Sunday liquor law, never allowing a full floor vote on the issue or forbidding it to be added as a “rider” on more consequential bills.
Proponents of the Sunday no-liquor law claim it would hurt small-town liquor stores that can’t afford to stay open Sundays. But, in fact, it’s the big-time liquor interests who have long supported the law, with the help of lobbying spineless legislators at the expense of consumer convenience. These proponents also fear repealing the ban would then lead to wine sales in grocery stores that would hurt small liquor stores.
Opponents of the ban say it’s an antiquated law that crimps the free market and causes barriers for people who want to purchase liquor on Sundays.
Minnesota is only one of 12 states that bans the sale of liquor on Sundays.
Polls show more than 60 percent of Minnesotans think the ban should be repealed. And those people are right. It’s time.
The law is as indefensible and as silly as the Puritanical blue laws concocted in the American colonial days of 300 years ago – laws that forbid card-playing on Sundays, for example. Those laws lasted for many years after they were passed, even though they were rarely if ever enforced. It’s time to do some house-cleaning and get rid of dumb laws, and the Minnesota no-Sunday liquor law is one of them.
Our neighboring states have no such Sunday liquor laws. On Sundays, many Minnesotans cross the border to drink or purchase liquor, thus robbing stores here of sales and the state of tax revenue.
Contact your state senators. Tell them to repeal this ludicrous law. Enough is enough. That law should be tossed on the ash heap of history.
