A bill filed after the death of LSU student Madison Brooks that would have banned people under the age of 21 from entering bars in Louisiana was gutted by the Legislature in the face of stiff resistance, but its sponsor hopes other measures to limit underage drinking could be taken instead.
The bill by Sen. Beth Mizell, a Republican from Franklinton, was approved by the Senate Judiciary B Committee on Tuesday, but only after significant amendments that removed the proposed ban on 18- to 20-year-olds in bars. Those changes turned its focus toward increasing the penalties for bars caught violating liquor laws and making it easer for people hurt by underage drinking to sue bar owners.
“This is not what we wanted, but we’ve opened the door,” Mizell said. “There’s been an acknowledgement that this is illegal, this is not in the best interest of our young people and, frankly, this is not in the best interest of the image of the state.”
Public officials at both the local Baton Rouge and state level have voiced hesitation about banning 18- to 20-year-olds from bars, arguing it could lead to more “underground” parties without any supervision. Some bar owners argued it would hurt business by blocking group parties and other events.
Mizell filed the original bill with the support of Brooks’ family.
Brooks’ death roiled LSU’s campus and spurred renewed attention to sexual assault against students.
Sheriff’s deputies said the 19-year-old Brooks met a group of three men — two of whom were underage — and a 17-year-old after a night of drinking at Reggie’s, a Tigerland bar, and asked them to drive her home. But the group stopped by the side of a road and one man and the juvenile raped her in the back seat, arrest documents say. Brooks was later struck by a car and killed after the group dropped her off in a neighborhood near campus, deputies said.
“My niece Madison is not the only soul lost to the culture of underage drinking in Louisiana, and she will not be the last, unfortunately,” Lauren LeBlanc, Brooks’ aunt and godmother, told lawmakers this week.
A focus on tougher penalties
If the revamped bill becomes law, it will increase the consequences bar owners and employees could face if an underage person is served alcohol at their business. Fines would be increased, and there were would be a clearer path for owners to be sued if someone is harmed as a result of underage drinking.
The “right of action” section of the bill takes direct aim at Louisiana’s “anti-dramshop law.”
A vast majority of states have dramshop laws on the books that hold alcohol establishments liable for any harmful actions taken by their intoxicated customers, if the establishment serves negligently. Louisiana’s current law takes the opposite approach, stating that the consumption of alcohol, rather than its sale, is the “proximate cause” of any injury, death or property damage inflicted by an intoxicated person.
Mizell’s bill would change that law to create legal liability for alcohol-serving establishments if a minor is served at their business and the intoxicated minor or a third party are harmed as a result.
The amendments also raise the fine schedule for bars caught serving alcohol to minors and require those bars to begin using a Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control-approved ID scanner. The bill also increases the penalties for someone caught using a fake ID.
Mizell expressed frustration with those who opposed her original bill and argued they were simply protecting the profits made off of underage drinking.
“The irony to me is that nobody can say they are benefiting economically from selling to underage drinkers because it’s illegal, but the strength of the opposition is a clear indication that somebody is benefiting economically from this,” Mizell said.
Mizell called the amended bill a “baby step” in the right direction.
Bill still has critics
After the amendments were read, the bill was approved without objection and nearly all of the more than a dozen people who had signed up to testify against the bill waived their opposing testimony.
But not all bar owners are on board with the amended bill.
Jordan Piazza, who owns Uncle Earl’s on Perkins Road, argued that if someone 18 or older has the ability to serve in the military, they are responsible enough to bear the blame for drinking underage, particularly with the sophistication of fake IDs used by many minors.
“The real issue is the individual that’s trying to drink underage,” Piazza said. “That’s the catalyst that’s never going away. Even the state has systems that don’t catch some of these fake IDs.”
ATC Commissioner Ernest Legier, who testified on Tuesday, said good-faith efforts by bars to catch someone using a fake ID are taken into account during enforcement hearings.
Mizell said a bar agrees to supervise the distribution of alcohol when applying for an alcohol license and should be held to a high standard.
“An 18-year-old is the least responsible party in the transaction but currently bears the full responsibility for being served in Louisiana, currently, and that’s what this is addressing,” Mizell said.
Kerry J. Miller, a New Orleans attorney representing Brooks’ mother, Ashley Baustert, said the family was disappointed by the resistance Mizell’s original bill faced but said they still support the amended version.
“That industry has a powerful lobby in Baton Rouge,” Miller said. “We understand there are economic interests here, let’s just not put those economic interests ahead of public safety.”
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