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That’s because a federal court case is still pending on whether Madison taverns violated anti-trust laws by volutarily agreeing to eliminate the specials.
At issue is whether such action violates anti-trust laws for collusion and price-fixing.
Technically, such action would violate those laws, but the Dane County Circuit Court upheld the ban, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed in a 3-1 decision that dismissed the case.
Justice David Prosser wrote that the 24 taverns involved were immune from anti-trust laws because they were under extreme pressure from the city to police themselves or face statutory regulations.
Even though the city of Madison was not a defendant in the suit, Prosser wrote that city officials would be immune from the law if they were are acting in the interest of public health and safety.
It’s still possible, of course, that the federal court will rule on behalf of the students and other bar customers who had filed suit. But if the federal lawsuit goes along the lines of the state courts, La Crosse officials should waste no time either banning the drink specials or encouraging the taverns to take action themselves.
Let’s be clear. Drink specials after 8 p.m. serve only one purpose: To get people more drunk.
At the levels of intoxication that we’ve seen in La Crosse — with blood alcohol levels at 0.20 or higher (at 0.08, the law considers one legally impaired for driving a car), that person’s safety is clearly impaired. At that level of drunkenness bad things can and do happen to people. They become more vulnerable for crimes and accidents.
This is a public safety issue. If taverns don’t see it that way, then city officials should take action.
That’s the argument we want to hear whether federal court rules the same way state courts have.
