INDIANAPOLIS – In May, the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (IPCA) and three of its members, Freedom Express, Ricker’s and Thorntons, filed a lawsuit against the state of Indiana in U.S. District Court for the right to sell cold beer.

The lawsuit says that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause (i.e., the law favors one retail class over another). So it might seem odd that a chain of liquor stores is making a simple request: Let’s all play by the same rules, writes the Star Ledger. Those rules, however, also come with a costly list of restrictions.

Indianapolis-based 21st Amendment, a chain of 19 liquor stores throughout the state, filed a motion in July to intervene in the lawsuit, saying that pharmacies, convenience stores and grocers should sell cold beer, but that they must abide by the same restrictions.

Some of those restrictions, writes the news source, include allowing only customers 21 and older to enter; requiring employees to hold special permits to sell alcohol; allowing only one store for every 8,000 residents of a town or city; closing on Sundays; and requiring the holder of a license to sell carry-out beer to live in Indiana.

Michael Wukmer, a lawyer representing 21st Amendment, told the news source that the courts should consider all of Indiana’s liquor laws and not just one provision, which he admits will prove to be cumbersome for pharmacies, convenience stores and grocers. “The retailers association wants all of the benefits of selling alcohol without any of the restrictions,” he said.

Both the state, the IPCA and the retailers involved in the lawsuit filed motions this week to block the liquor store chain from intervening in the lawsuit.

“21st Amendment Inc., has no authority to assert control over the defense of a lawsuit against the State of Indiana, has no legally recognizable interest in presenting a separate defense of the constitutionality of state statues, regulations, and policies, and has no basis to ask this court to rewrite Indiana law as it relates to the regulation of alcohol,” wrote Deputy Attorney General Kenneth L. Joel.

John R. Maley, attorney for the plaintiffs, told the news source that the 21st Amendment should file its own lawsuit if it wants to change liquor laws. He also pointed out the lawsuit is only challenging the constitutionality of one provision of state law — not asking the federal court to write new state legislation.

The news source writes that Indiana’s restrictions of cold beer sales “are among a hodgepodge of liquor laws the state has adopted in the 80 years since Prohibition ended, passed amid an evolving mix of religious, social and economic concerns. Hoosiers, for instance, face the broadest restrictions on the sale of carry-out alcohol on Sundays.”

Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, commented that current law caters to liquor stores. “Public policy based on temperature doesn’t make any sense,” he said.