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One of the positive changes brought about by the pandemic occurred when many state and local government allowed customers to take pre-mixed cocktails outdoors in expanded dining areas. According to Yahoo! news, 33 states and the District of Columbia pass emergency orders allowing outdoor drinking. Quoting the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! news reports that Washington, D.C., “Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, and Iowa have already made such allowances permanent, while other states extended permission into next year.”
Those opposed to permitting outdoor drinking include, “beer distributors, liquor and convenience stores, and grocers’ associations, as well as some city governments who argue that takeout cocktails could encourage underage drinking and drunk driving.” Nonetheless, California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) has stated that modernizing liquor laws, some of which date back 100 years, is a long-term interest for him. “The pandemic is a terrible thing in all respects, but it made us try out new things at a very rapid pace. And the sky didn’t fall,” he told the Journal. “There are more open minds among lawmakers than there otherwise would be.”
About the Author: Steven Oberman has been licensed in Tennessee since 1980, and successfully defended over 2,500 DUI defendants. Among the many honors bestowed upon him, Steve has served as Dean of the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. (NCDD) and currently serves as chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers DUI Committee. Steve was the first lawyer in Tennessee to be Board Certified as a DUI Defense Specialist by the NCDD.
He is the author of DUI: The Crime & Consequences in Tennessee, updated annually since 1991 (Thomson-West), and co-author with Lawrence Taylor of the national treatise, Drunk Driving Defense, 8th edition (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen). Steve has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee Law School since 1993 and has received a number of prestigious awards for his faculty contributions. He is a popular international speaker, having spoken at legal seminars in 30 states, the District of Columbia and six foreign countries. After being named a Fulbright Scholar, Steve was honored to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Latvia Law School in the capital city of Riga, Latvia during the Spring Semester of 2019. If you would like to contact the author, please visit his website at www.tndui.com.
