Light-Blue Law

I’ve never gotten around to writing about it here, but over the years some of my state’s blue laws have given me gout. For those of you not from the east [where blue laws are most often found], a blue law is a law that is so outdated that it has become laughable and impractical, yet it’s still an active law for some unknown reason. Want an example? It is illegal in Devon, Connecticut to walk backwards in public but only after dusk. See? Asinine. One of the best known blue laws in CT – and the one that once got me to write to my state representative – is the law that states that alcohol may not be sold after 8PM and not at all on Sundays.

Yes, I actually wrote to my local representative in my state’s government about this. Am I that much of an alcoholic that I need to buy liquor at 5AM? No – alcoholics go to meetings and I certainly don’t. No, honestly, it’s just a point of convenience. Super Bowl Sunday party? Better buy your alcohol on Saturday, cuz you’ll have to go to NY or MA, if you want to buy beer. Safer roads because of an early cut off time to buy? Hardly. Bars can still sell alcohol so you can get it there – you just can’t buy it and take it home.

See, that’s my biggest issue with this law: it defies logic. The biggest problem with DUI cases is that the driver went to the bar, got bombed, and drove home. Not that the driver went to the store, bought beer, drove home, got bombed and… drove again for no reason? There’s no logical reason for it.

When I wrote my letter to my representative, I laid out all the cases I could come up with, including the fact that other blue laws had been repealed with great success – the most notable case was that of car sales on Sundays – and that there would be more taxes from more sales, etc. She wrote me back saying that the largest supporters of keeping this blue law active was the owners of liquor stores; they liked having the day off. This made me flip, of course, because no one said that the liquor stores have to be open on Sunday – I want the law repealed so it would be legal for liquor stores to be open. With the car dealerships, not all of them open on Sundays, but they have the option to be open, which is what’s important here.

The moral of the story is that somewhere over the summer, this blue law got changed. We still can’t buy liquor on Sundays. We still can’t buy liquor at 4 in the morning. No, the state took the time to change the law and made the new cut off time for selling liquor to be 9PM, instead of 8PM.

Somehow takes the heart out of being an activist, doesn’t it?


11 thoughts on “Light-Blue Law”

  1. I love the smell of insanity in the morning. Does that also mean that, say, grocery stores can’t sell alcohol at those times either? Do they block off that aisle or what?

  2. Actually, each state has its own laws for alcohol, like CA can sell anything but in NY only beer distributers can sell beer and another permit covers wine and hard liquor.

    For CT, food stores can only sell beer and beer-like drinks (i.e. cider, hard lemonade) but yes, on Sundays and other nights after 9PM they block off the coolers and shelves that sell that stock the stuff. In fact, they usually announce on the PA system that “the deadline” is coming about 20 minutes before 9. Well, I assume 9 since they did it at 8 – I was oblivious to the new cutoff time until this past weekend.

  3. Ah, yes. I’ll always remember those window-shade things the stores would unroll to cover the “contraband” beer on the shelves so you could not even see it after 8PM. What a joke.

    Hmmm… can you buy “alcohol free” beer after 9PM? After all, it isn’t really “alcohol free” but only has reduced alcohol content.

  4. I figured I’d see ya on this particular round, since you were from here :)

    Actually, yeah – all those “alcohol free” stuff you can get but you still can’t buy mixers that have alcohol in them. Sad that someone actually has to write up and track these things in the state government… blah!

  5. randy if you have any further info on the CT blue laws please email it to me, i need it for a senior project

  6. Wish I could say I did, but you might want to try Google… I remember a couple of sites that had lists of blue laws from all over the country, but I don’t know how accurate nor official it was.

  7. Randy,

    I’m in criminal justice classes in Anderson SC, and we discused this issue my second week of class and I agree with you. I’m a christian, my parents don’t drink and I don’t anymore, but I still think that the law is unconstitutional for the simple reason of the government allowing states to govern what and when an American wants to spend their money. The law doesn’t affect people getting drunk and driving or just plain getting drunk. My buddies just go out Sat. and buy as many cases as they can carry for the simple fact that they can’t get it the next day. This is not only an inconveince to the customer but it blocks, I’m sure, a lot of currency from entering stores on Sunday. It just seems to me that our states, and govern. could come up with a little more important things to put on their to do list. As far as the change from 8pm to 9pm in your state that is one of the most rediculous inactments of law. If everything now adays has to be politicaly correct this is pretty two-faced if you want to know exactly how I feel. We have troops fighting to keep our country free and for our freedom as individuals, but something as simple as buying a beer on a certian day is illegal. To me it’s just plian ignorant.

  8. Kevin P, I don’t know if they cut those off, but you do have to be 21 to buy N/A beer, for some reason. I suppose if you pounded 35 of them you could catch a buzz, at their whopping 0.5% alc/vol. :)

  9. After you’re done screaming into that paper bag beside you, relax with this engaging chain from the world of blog:

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    2. Open the book to page 123.

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  10. Well actually the grocery stores can sell alcohol after 9 p.m. and on Sundays in CT. It just can’t be labeled as an alcoholic beverage. They are allowed to sell vanilla, and cough syrup as well as anbesol, and other such products that actually have a higher percentage of alcohol than the beer that they are allowed to sell.

    The other odd one is that some pharmacies are allowed to sell alcohol. This is an old law and is considered a grandfather law, so there are very few left as CVS is putting all of the old mom and pop pharmacies out of business


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