Liquor sales on Sundays: 3,100 Facebook fans, but no traction at the Capitol

Not many pieces of legislation generate their own Facebook fan pages. But Sen. Richard Cohen’s bill to allow liquor sales on Sundays has accumulated more than 3,100 fans on the social networking site. The bill would also permit sales of intoxicating beverages on Thanksgiving.

Among the legislation’s fans: Colin Lee, a DFL candidate for the state House in district 36A. “Our Founding Fathers left Europe because they wanted to move away from these kinds of laws,” Lee wrote on the Facebook page. “Allow Minnesotans the liberty to make their own decisions. Allow us the freedom to buy and sell liquor any day of the week. Limiting which days liquor can be purchased does nothing to curb alcoholism.”

Alas, the bill is not slated to get a hearing before the Senate’s Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. It’s companion bill in the House has also failed to generate a hearing. Which means that — despite evidence that Sunday booze sales would lift revenues at a time when the state is flat broke — it’s almost certainly dead for this legislative session.

One Response to “Liquor sales on Sundays: 3,100 Facebook fans, but no traction at the Capitol”

1. Colin Lee Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 1:10 pm

   To clarify what I meant by the first sentence in my quote, the Founding Fathers opposed an establishment of religion. The original intent of these “blue laws” prohibiting activities on Sundays was to impose religious law on America and most were struck down as unconstitutional.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law