Categories: Politics

BREAKING: Nebraska Supreme Court rules on Whiteclay beer stores

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday morning issued its ruling on the fate of four beer stores in Whiteclay, Nebraska, a town of twelve citizens. The decision vacated a District Court judge’s earlier decision and ruled in favor of citizens who had protested the stores. The stores, which closed in May, will remain shuttered.

“Huge rocks have been removed from the road to recovery for many of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation and the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Activists have been advocating for the stores’ closure for decades, in part because of their proximity to the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which sits just a short walk across the South Dakota border, and where alcohol consumption has been prohibited since the 1970s. Still, an estimated one in four children is born on the reservation with fetal alcohol syndrome and up to two-thirds of adults struggle with alcoholism. In the past, these four stores have sold as many as 3.5 million cans of beer per year.

Last spring, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted to prevent the four stores from renewing their licenses based on an obscure rule—that, in order to host a liquor store, a town must have adequate law enforcement. After a hearing, the Commission voted unanimously to close the stores based on testimony from the county sheriff and local residents. A subsequent series of appeals sent the case all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Related Post

“Today’s Nebraska Supreme Court decision means that the shame of Whiteclay is over. It also means huge rocks have been removed from the road to recovery for many of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation and the Pine Ridge Reservation,” said David Domina, attorney for the Whiteclay residents who advocated for the stores’ closure, in a press release.

The Supreme Court’s decision was based on questions of jurisdiction and legal process. It ruled that the legal team advocating on behalf of the beer stores had failed to include all “parties of record” when it sought a decision from the District Court. This failure meant the District Court didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter, and “as a result, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal. We vacate the judgment of the district court and dismiss this appeal,” wrote the justices.

The decision vacated the District Court’s April decision (in which it ruled the stores could stay open) and remanded it back to the District Court. Domina told the Omaha World-Herald on Friday that the beer stores have the option to re-apply for liquor licenses, though they are unlikely to be granted.

H. Claire Brown
Share
Published by
H. Claire Brown

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago