Booze Ban Faces Challenge

A Santa Fe lawyer wants to seek help from the courts in striking down a new rule that prohibits the sale of small bottles of alcohol.

Mark Basham says he plans to file a lawsuit against City Hall, arguing that a recently approved ban on miniature bottles of liquor violates the civil rights of liquor retailers.

In an April 8 meeting, by a 6-2 vote, councilors approved the ban, initially proposed by District 1 Councilor Sig Lindell, of the sale of liquor in containers 8 ounces or smaller. They did so under the pretext that it was a litter-control measure. A similar rule is already in effect for retailers along Airport Road.

Yet critics like Basham, a former county probate judge, see the councilors' stated justification for the citywide rule—to reduce litter—as a way for officials to circumvent language of New Mexico's Liquor Control Act, which puts the state, not local governments, in control of regulating liquor.

"Basically we think that the industry has been singled out," Basham says of liquor retailers. "There are many other goods that are sold in those sizes as well, which have been excluded from this ordinance."

Basham argues liquor retailers are being denied equal protection under the law. He won’t name the “handful” of Santa Fe liquor retailers he says he’s representing, and he says he isn’t sure yet whether he’ll file the lawsuit in state or federal court. But Basham claims he’s going to file a complaint within 30 days of the April 8 meeting, though the ordinance is not scheduled to go into effect until October.

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