Connecticut’s system of inflating the retail price of alcoholic beverages may not be unconstitutional and a violation of federal antitrust law, as the Total Wine & More beverage retailing chain has just charged in a lawsuit brought in federal court. But this argument against the system is not novel. Forty years ago a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, Leonard Orland, made the same argument in support of the courageous effort of state Sen. Robert D. Houley, D-Vernon, to repeal the alcohol-pricing system.
Unconstitutional or not, the system remains a prime example of the venality and corruption of government and politics in Connecticut. Now it is Gov. Dannel Malloy who courageously proposes repealing the system. While Connecticut seems to be the only state operating this way, the General Assembly has let the system continue as legislators cower before the “mom and pop” liquor store operators, of whom every legislator’s district has many.
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