The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that local governments may not regulate bar closing times in a case out of Boulder, Colorado, because the matter is not within the scope of a municipality's home rule authority.
Denver Mayor Hickenlooper had been considering efforts to regulate closing times at the municipal level as a means of addressing violence at closing time in the wake of a recent LoDo shooting. This ruling makes it impossible to mandate this kind of change without state cooperation, unless it is overruled by the Colorado Supreme Court.
3 comments:
I think you have confused prescribed "bar closing times" with limitations on the hours during which the bar may serve alcohol. This new court decision concerns only the latter. It's possible for the bar to remain open without serving alcohol every moment. Thus, under this court ruling, the city could allow bars to remain open past 2 a.m., but the bar must stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m. (per state law). This may lessen the swarm of people fooding the streets at 2.
When I think of "bar closing time" I'm thinking of "the bar."
"The bar" can serve non-alcoholic drinks and often does. Keeping the bar (i.e., the business) open past 2 a.m., serving non-alcoholic beverages and/or food, may reduce the number of people emptying into the streets all at once.
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