The national free-enterprise legal organization Pacific Legal Foundation filed its response Wednesday to the state of Floridas motion to dismissa PLF lawsuit challenging Florida's "irrational law" banning beer growlers.
"The state is trying to deny our clients their day in court, and we strongly oppose that effort," Kate Pomeroy, PLF's Washington, D.C., media director, told Sunshine State News.
The growler is the industry-standard, half-gallon containers of beer that craft beer enthusiasts prefer throughout the United States, claims Mark Miller, managing attorney at PLF's Florida headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens. "And, per CBS News, (growlers) are only completely illegal in Florida."
Miller and PLF represent the owners of The Crafted Keg, a downtown Stuart craft beer restaurant. The business was founded last year by Guy Piasecki and his three sons, Matthias, Alex, and Max, along with their partner Zachary Levine. All are beer enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who say they recognized an exploding demand for craft beer products.
They filed their civil rights lawsuit in federal courtin October; the state filed its motion to dismiss in November.
Under current law --Fla. Statute Section 563.06(6)--breweries can sell beer in quart and gallon-size containers, but they cant fill a half-gallon bottle.
For two years in a row, attempts to end the ban through legislation introduced during session were scuttled when lawmakers, acting at thebehest of big beer interests, weighed down a bill to repeal the growler ban with new restrictions on brewery sales.
PLF sees the problems for Florida craft brew establishments like The Crafted Keg as particularly acute when it comes to serving tourists -- people from any of the 47 states where businesses are free to sell and refill half-gallon growlers. When out?of?state customers bring in their 64?ounce growlers to be filled, Florida businesses like The Crafted Keg are forced to say "no. And customers, unfamiliar with the law, believe they're being lied to.
"We allege it makes simply no sense for Florida to allow gallon-size jugs of beer, and to allow quart-size jugs of beer, but at the same time to prohibit the industry-standard size that falls right in the middle of those two sizes," Miller said Wednesday. "The state does not want PLF and The Crafted Keg to have their day in court, and that is why the state has moved to dismiss the case.
"We think our clients claims deserve to be heard, and that's why we have opposed the motion."
How crazy is this, asks Miller, that the state defends its growler ban "by saying the ban -- which allows the restaurant to sell and fill a gallon of beer and a quart of beer, but not to sell and fill a half-gallon growler -- prevents 'intoxication and its collateral evils'?
"Take a moment and drink that argument in? Is this 2014 in Florida, or the eve of Prohibition, circa 1920?"
Miller concludes, "We argue that the court should deny the motion because the growler ban does not rationally further that purpose, or any other legitimate government purpose. Read our entire argument."
As Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, predicted in October, a fix-it bill was already in the works for the 2015 legislative session. She said the third attempt will be the charm.
Earlier this week Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, filed a bill to end microbrewers' miseries once and for all. Senate Bill 186 would make the growler legal; Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, has vowed to file a companion bill in the House.
And this time, says Mitch Rubin, executive director of the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association, his group won't oppose the half-gallon jugs.
Retired law professor Garrett Mize of Miami told Sunshine State News, "A prospective bill isn't good reason to stop this lawsuit. Growler bills have failed twice before, the distributors could decide against compliance as time goes on. Pacific Legal Foundation is smart to forge ahead."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
