General Assembly tries to revise Ind. carding laws

Members of the Indiana General Assembly are counteracting backlash from their constituents by introducing numerous bills to repeal or revise a current law requiring alcohol merchants to card all alcohol purchasers regardless of age.

According to the Indiana General Assembly’s website, there are five bills listed in the Indiana Senate and two listed in the Indiana House of Representatives that would either repeal or revise the current law. Enacted July 1, 2010 the law states it is a Class B misdemeanor if a store is caught not carding a purchaser of alcohol.

“We’ve all heard from people all throughout the summer how ridiculous the law is,” Sen. Johnny Nugent said. “It’s an embarrassment to everybody.”

Nugent is a second author to Sen. Jean Leising’s bill and a co-author to Sen. Jim Merritt’s bill. Sen. Leising’s bill would completely repeal the current law, while Sen. Merritt’s would minimize the carding requirements to anyone appearing less than 40 years of age.

“It (the law) was good intentioned,” Nugent said. “It’s on the ridiculous side to card somebody that is 60 years old.”

Nugent said he believes the current law was inserted into a larger bill during last year’s session of the General Assembly.

“There were many members that didn’t know it was in there,” Nugent said. “I for one admit I did not know it was in the bill. That’s my lack of responsibility.”

Although authors of the bills suggest there is overwhelming support to revise the current legislation, Big Red president Wade Shanower said mandatory carding prevents his employees from relying on appearances to decide whether or not to card.

“We like the law as it is now — with the mandatory carding,” Shanower said. “It takes all of the decision making off of us, off our employees.”

He said if someone younger than 21 walks out of Big Red with alcohol and is caught, Big Red — not the employee — can be slapped with fines totaling more than $1000.

Shanower admitted that even if the state overturned the current policy, Big Red could still easily protect its employees from making tough decisions on who to card by maintaining an in-store “card everyone” rule.

“If the legislature overturns this, it doesn’t mean it will change our policy,” Shanower said.

John Livengood, president of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, said IABR likes the current law, too.

“We and the other retail groups all testified in favor of the bill when it was before the legislature (last year),” Livengood said.

IABR is a trade association that represents and lobbies for packaged liquor stores, such as Bloomington’s Big Red Liquors. Livengood said he believes the current law did what it intended to do.

When asked if he thought it is necessary for an 80-year-old to be carded at a liquor store, Livengood said he does because consumers get carded all of the time — for using credit cards, voting, going on airplanes and going to banks.

“It’s not a major inconvenience given the benefit that results from it,” Livengood said.

He said he believes the main benefit of the law is to prevent store employees from having to make the decision whether or not the customer appears to be older than a certain age.

Before the law was enacted — although liquor stores could get cited for selling underage — there was no state law requiring the checking of identification for anyone of age.

Indiana Representative Greg Steuerwald introduced similar legislation to Sen. Leising’s bill.

“You can have a customer for 30 years and every time he comes in there you have to card him,” Steuerwald said. “If you fail to card him one time, you commit a B misdemeanor.”

He said he has not heard any of his colleagues object to the bill and said numerous people have asked to sign on.

“I’ve not heard anybody opposed to it yet,” Steuerwald said.

Of the five bills in the Senate — according to Livenwood, Shanower and Nugent — Merritt’s Senate Bill No. 78 seems to have the most leverage. His bill would not repeal the current law, but force venders to card individuals who look younger than 40 years of age.

As of Wednesday, however, Leising’s bill has the most authors and coauthors. Her bill, if passed, would completely repeal the current law.

“I think it’s agreed upon that we need to make a correction here,” Nugent said. “It’s almost like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.”