The Alabama Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional a 2009 law allowing small towns in the state to vote on alcohol sales, but few expect the ruling to bring changes at the local level.
The Court struck down the law in its Feb. 27 ruling in the case of Glenn Bynum and Larry Gipson v. City of Oneonta.
Bynum, pastor of Village Springs Baptist Church, Remlap, and Larry Gipson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Oneonta, both in Friendship Baptist Association, brought the suit in 2013 in an effort to stop a wet/dry election in Oneonta.
The Court’s ruling was not concerned with alcohol sales, however, but rather the law itself, according to Eric Johnston, who represented Bynum and Gipson in the suit.
Johnston said the issue goes back to 2003 when the Alabama Legislature passed a bill allowing Cedar Bluff, a town of less than 2,000 residents on Lake Weiss in Cherokee County, to hold a municipal option vote on alcohol sales.
At the time, Alabama state law said that only communities with 7,000 or more residents could initiate such a vote.
That law was amended in 2009 to lower the population threshold to 1,000 residents, allowing more small towns to hold wet/dry referendums, but the law excluded Blount, Randolph and Clay counties. The exclusions were negotiated in order to obtain passage, Johnston said.
“The exclusions had no basis except to get the law passed,” Johnston said. “As a result, the law violated the rights of citizens in those three counties because they were excluded from having these votes.”
Johnston argued that the exclusion was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The Alabama Supreme Court accepted that argument in its decision.
Johnston said the amendment was unconstitutional from the start. Prior to its passage, the Alabama Legislature had requested an advisory opinion from the Alabama Supreme Court. Despite the court’s opinion that the amendment would in fact be unconstitutional, the Legislature passed it anyway. Johnston said the Legislature’s action was a clear violation of the law.
As a result, he said, the recent ruling “establishes the legal principle that the Legislature must act lawfully.”
“The bigger issue that overarches all of this is the Legislature acting in such an unlawful way. Whether it’s alcohol or something else, the court essentially said to legislators, ‘get the law straight.’ That wasn’t clear before.”
The court’s decision throws out all municipal wet/dry referendums held since the 2009 amendment, but Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), said the Alabama Legislature is moving quickly to pass a new bill eliminating the exclusions.
“The mayors were in Montgomery on March 4 trying to get a new bill to make this a statewide policy and take out those amendments that excluded Clay, Blount and Randolph,” Godfrey said.
Godfrey and Bynum spoke at a public hearing to express opposition to the new legislation, but Godfrey said the bill is on the “fast track” and could be ready for the governor’s signature within days.
Gipson believes support for the bill will essentially come down to money. Many mayors have been quoted in news outlets across the state expressing concern for the loss of revenue alcohol sales currently bring to their cities.
Gipson sees the larger moral and social implications, however.
“I’m saddened that our culture and society continue to move away from biblical principles that instruct us to be concerned about our fellow man,” he said. “Money is not the answer to the problems our towns face. As long as we have people who continue to think that way, we will continue to have problems.”
Voting again
The potential upside for alcohol opponents is that municipalities who voted under the old law will have to vote again in order to continue alcohol sales.
Johnston said, “The cities will have to vote again, and it will then be up to people in the community to go out and make this a public issue.”
Gipson said he, Bynum and others affiliated with Keep Blount County Special, a coalition of pastors and laypeople who support anti-alcohol policies, will continue to work in the coming days to try to change the legislation and, if necessary, persuade Gov. Robert Bentley to veto the bill.
And if Oneonta holds another wet/dry referendum, Keep Blount County Special will fight those who support alcohol sales.
“This is a divisive issue in our county, but we are opposed to alcohol sales period,” Gipson said. “We want legislators and the governor to see what this is going to do to our communities and small towns.”
Share with others: