In 1982, in Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts liquor licensing law that gave churches (as well as schools) a veto power over the granting of liquor licenses to establishments located within 500 feet of church (or school) premises. The Massachusetts legislature had been concerned with "protecting schools and churches from the commotion associated with liquor outlets." While delegation of decison making to churches was a problem, the Court said that the "valid secular objectives [of the law] can be readily accomplished by other means - either through an absolute legislative ban on liquor outlets within reasonable prescribed distances from churches, schools, hospitals, and like institutions, or by ensuring a hearing for the views of affected institutions at licensing proceedings where, without question, such views would be entitled to substantial weight." Now, a controversy in New York City may test the limits of these holdings.
The Tribeca Trib this week reported that the New York State Liquor Authority has denied a license to one bar, and is threatening to close three others, because they are within 200 feet of Masjid al-Farah, a Sufi mosque. The problem, however, is that none of the bar owners knew that the mosque was there. Indeed some of the bars had been operating over 10 years without realizing the problem. The mosque's nondescript building has no signage on it indicating that it is a mosque. Moreover, mosque officials have no objection to the bars. The Liquor Authority asserted the violations of law after other neighbors objected to the noise and over-concentration of bars in the neighborhood. One bar owner has suggested a legal loophole-- he argues that Sufism is "more a philosophy" than a religion. The state's liquor law (Alcoholic Beverage Contol Law, Sec. 64) applies to establishments on the same street and within 200 feet of a building "occupied exclusively as a school, church, synagogue or other place of worship..."
