Civil Liberties

Drunk with power

by Mike Miliard

Ohio lawmakers need to get their priorities straight.

Planning a wedding or block party with lots of beer? Plan to wait awhile. A recently enacted statewide law now mandates a five-day waiting period for purchases of five or more kegs of beer. Prospective party animals must also sign a notarized affidavit promising that no one under age 21 will be served, and grant local police and the Ohio Department of Public Safety the right to crash the bash without a search warrant if they see fit.

A ridiculous law, to be sure. Not only for the ease with which it can be sidestepped (even the dumbest frat boy knows to send two guys out to get four kegs each), but for the basic civil liberties it violates. Not surprisingly, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Libertarian Party are furious. Says Raymond Vasvari, legal director of the Ohio ACLU, "Our principal concern is that [the law] requires people to sign away their Fourth Amendment rights without any hint of criminality and in advance of any criminal conduct. It's perfectly legal for adults to buy beer in quantity. And the notion that people should be required, in advance of engaging in a legal activity, to sacrifice their constitutional rights is repugnant."

And the Libertarian Party sees the first slide down a slippery slope. "What comes next?" asks George Getz, the party's press secretary. "A background check? Should we check to see if the people buying beer are alcoholics? You wouldn't want to give beer to an alcoholic, right? What about people who have committed spousal abuse or been convicted of DUI?" (Despite his doomsaying, Getz was punch-drunk with puns in a press release on the subject. "This is the worst idea since Billy Beer," he wrote. "We don't want to Harp on this, but this is a Grolsch violation of individual liberty. You can bet your Bass that beer-lovers everywhere will be sadder, Budweiser, when they hear about this Hamm's-handed law.")

Joking aside, all this talk of registration and waiting periods makes you think: for a state that takes such a hard line on alcohol purchases, Ohio must have super-stringent gun laws, right? Um, no. Registration? Forget about it! Waiting period? Whatever for?