If you accompany a friend to the liquor store and forget your wallet, it's probably best you just wait in the car.
Otherwise, your friend may not be allowed to make his purchase, and both of you will be asked to leave the premises.
A Salt Lake County resident learned this lesson earlier this month when he and a friend visited the state liquor store on 400 South. At the clerk's request, the man showed identification proving he was at least 21 years old, but his friend, also of legal age but not intending to purchase anything, did not have his ID with him. The man left the store empty-handed.
Monday, he filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging that the clerk's refusal to sell him the alcohol while he was accompanied by someone without an identification violated his constitutional rights to due process.
The suit names Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control director Kenneth Wynn, the unknown cashier and the five individual DABC commission members.
The man — identified in court documents as A. McReynolds — claims that he "personally committed no wrong and had engaged in no conduct that justified the refusal of (the clerk) to sell liquor to him."
McReynolds' attorney, Brian Barnard, said the policy denies a person access to a government service "for no legitimate reason and without any kind of due process."
Barnard first notified the DABC 14 years ago that the unwritten policy appeared to be a civil-rights violation.
In a February 1991 letter, Barnard informed DABC regulatory director Earl Dorius of a similar situation he witnessed at a different state liquor store. A woman attempted to make a purchase but was denied when her companion was unable to produce identification. The man left the store and the woman, who had a valid ID, again attempted to purchase the liquor, but the cashier again refused.
The letter indicated that both the woman and the man appeared to be over 21.
"I am concerned about this situation for a couple of reasons," Barnard wrote. First, he said, the man could easily have been over 21 years old. Second, "the young woman, legally in the store and over the age of 21, was prevented from buying any liquor because she had gone into a liquor store with someone who did not have any identification."
Dorius responded the following month, saying he saw no violation of the couple's civil rights in the incident. Rather, he wrote, the clerk "acted with reasonable caution to avoid indirectly furnishing alcohol to a suspected minor."
And that, DABC director of operations Dennis Kellen said Monday, is the main purpose behind the long-standing policy.
"It is not to be prejudiced against anybody, it is to keep alcohol out of the hands of people who are not of legal age," he said.
Unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, no one under the age of 21 is allowed inside a state liquor store. And those people must be prepared to show identification.
Clerks are given considerable discretion, based on their observations of customers' behavior and interaction with one another, to determine when a person may be purchasing alcohol for an underage consumer and to refuse to make sales accordingly.
"The store employees do not want the hassle either; believe me they don't," he said. "They're just trying to do their job, and that job is trying to keep alcohol out of the hands of youth."
Which is a good argument, Barnard said, but not a particularly effective one. Minors who cajole adults into purchasing liquor for them rarely accompany them into the store.
"They're assuming that underage people who are going to have somebody buy liquor for them are stupid," he said. "Yeah, they may be breaking the law, but they're not stupid."
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com