Sipping the South: Why so-called ‘blue laws’ are fading from the books

St. Petersburg is a place that embraces its weirdness.

Priding itself on colorful creatives as much as economic and ethnic diversity, it’s about as anything-goes as a place can get (this side of Gulfport, anyway). Just ask Bible-thumper Glenn Beck, who last year included St. Pete on his list of the nation’s most “godless” cities. (Mayor Kriseman thanked him.)

So, yeah, the city has earned a reputation as a liberal bastion.

But you can’t buy a Bloody Mary at 10:45 a.m. on a Sunday.

That’s because St. Pete, like many other Southern cities, has ordinances on its books called “blue laws”: that is, laws that bar drinking or buying packaged alcohol before certain times on Sundays, with the apparent intent of encouraging churchgoing.

In early February, Kriseman tweeted that it’s time to get rid of such policies.

“We are in the 21st century, it’s time we adjust our way of doing business,” he said.

The tweet came after he brought it up to fellow Pinellas mayors at a meeting of the county’s Mayor’s Council.

It’s ridiculous, he said, that Beach Drive (or any of the beaches) should teem with hungry (and maybe hungover) brunch-seekers of legal drinking age who can’t order a mimosa to go with their eggs Benedict. He hopes his colleagues on City Council will see eye to eye with him on the matter.

“The Council will revisit the issue at their next meeting and decide whether to formally recommend a change to the County Commission,” Kriseman said through a spokesman. “This law is archaic and needs to go away.”

Kriseman was a St. Pete City Councilman in 2003 when the city voted to move the ban on Sunday alcohol sales from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. Former Mayor Bill Foster, then also a councilman, was one of two members to oppose the measure, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

If Pinellas ends blue laws countywide, it wouldn’t be the first local government in the area to do so. Sarasota and Lakeland repealed their laws barring booze sales before noon last year. Other places, like Manatee County, don’t even have such a law.

“Someone mentioned to me we’re on the dais, not the pulpit. We can’t legislate morality,” Lakeland City Commissioner Justin Troller said during that city’s unanimous vote to do away with the ban, according to the Lakeland Ledger.

Hillsborough County and Tampa loosened their restrictions in 2003, but neither sells alcohol before 11 a.m. on Sundays. For years prior, Pasco County’s San Antonio was the only municipality that did, catching criticism for allowing restaurants and bars to serve alcohol at 8 a.m.

It’s unclear why these restrictions on Sunday behavior are called “blue laws,” though some suggest the phrase originated in New Haven, Connecticut, where such laws were printed on blue paper.

Blue laws aren’t limited to booze bans. In a recent Daily Beast piece, writer Candida Moss notes that states have tried to spoil the Sundays of would-be sinners with laws against “‘indecent bathing’ (Georgia), attending a concert (Connecticut), fishing (Delaware), and the sale of candy (Maryland). And in Evanston, Illinois, the Women’s Temperance Union succeeded in banning the sale of ice cream on Sundays.”

Many states still have blue laws on the books, often confusing consumers.

In Indiana, for example, you can’t find snacks at a liquor store, but you can find beer, wine and liquor at a grocery store (not cold, though). And you can’t buy any packaged alcohol on Sundays (except at wineries and craft breweries). In Georgia, alcohol sales on Sunday are prohibited before 12:30 p.m., and it’s up to local voters whether a county can sell it at all on that day of the week. In Oklahoma, all packaged liquor sales are prohibited, all day, on Sundays (car dealerships are also not allowed to operate).

Anyone with a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights might think such ostensibly religious laws are an obvious violation of the First Amendment. After all, limiting what individuals can do on what some consider the Sabbath suggests the establishment of religion by the state.

But state and local governments have gotten around religious liberty questions, notes Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Brown, by citing secular reasons for keeping the ban in place, like public safety.

The columnist agreed with St. Pete’s mayor that such laws are archaic: “I think Kriseman’s recommendation should be adopted.”

In any case, the state Legislature has already made boozing a little easier on Sunday morning — very early morning, that is: They’ve left it up to local lawmakers to decide when last call is, as well as the time at which the first hair of the dog is poured (as long as it’s after 7 a.m.). 

This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.