Court Opinion

ID: 9492952
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:54:04.576006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:34.127445
License: Public Domain

BAUER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In order to better understand the ramifications of the majority opinion, a bit of urban reality is, I believe, in order.
*623The residents of the City of Chicago, 2,700,000 or more, live in neighborhoods characterized by their homogeneity. The residents share, in general, the same socioeconomic status, the homes are strikingly similar in configuration and costs, and the blue-collar/white-collar employment of the workers are usually the same. Racial and/or ethnic backgrounds tend to be similar. Although neighborhoods have no recognized political existence, they are there, with or without political acknowledgment, and it is there that Chicagoans live, marry, raise families, socialize and die. Most of the residents lack real mobility of choice; affordable housing near or convenient to employment or transportation is what they must settle for. Stability of neighborhood and safety are their primary objectives. Many have no choice at all; public housing or subsidized housing dictates where they live.
What businesses are in or around these neighborhoods are there because the zoning laws and licensing regulations, planned on a city-wide basis, permit their existence. (Of course, the business investors look for areas of opportunity and that plays a major role in what businesses exist side by side with the residential buildings.)
Barber shops, grocery stores, convenience markets, drugstores, restaurants, tailor shops, all these exist in the neighborhoods and add to the livability of the area. One business, however, is acknowledged to have a greater impact on the tone of a neighborhood than any other — the liquor business.
For purposes of this case, we need not think in terms of liquor stores but only those licensed premises which purvey drinks by the glass. They include most fine restaurants, many family or ethnic restaurants, and neighborhood saloons; those places that Chicago historians called the working man’s social clubs. It is here that the people meet, not just to drink, but to eat, to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions and to socialize with people of the neighborhood.
When Illinois exercised its right to control (or ban altogether) the sale of liquor, it opted to create a system of local-option rules. The decision as to whether to permit liquor sales, to define how many and where such emporiums could exist was left to cities and villages and even counties for the unincorporated areas. Moreover, the towns and villages, many with a smaller total population than a Chicago precinct, can determine the character of the liquor emporium. They can, for instance, regulate the type of entertainment a licensee can offer the public, the hours and days of purveying, or even restrict the sale of liquor to hotels or places that serve food. Because of its size, however, Chicago (technically, cities of a certain size that only Chicago meets) is treated differently. Recognizing that neighborhoods most closely resemble small towns, the legislature sought to give some local control.
There is, however, as we have said, no political entity called a “neighborhood”; its closest parallel is the precinct. A “precinct” is not a definable graphic area; it is an entity that exists only to facilitate voting. It is created by the city in its establishment of places to vote; ideally, each precinct will contain 400 registered voters. When the number of registered voters goes much above or below that figure, the precinct boundaries must, by law, be redrawn. This to ensure a conveniently close place for voters to exercise their franchise and to reduce the possibility of long lines of voters waiting for a vacant polling booth.
Of course, in addition to the 400 registered voters, the precinct will contain many more people: those ineligible to vote because of their minority, non-citizens, those who have not established sufficient length of residency and (if voter registration proponents are to- be believed) a large number of people, otherwise eligible, who have not bothered to register to vote. .In short, a “precinct” is close to being a neighborhood or a. small town and it has a *624political existence. And local option of sort is granted to these entities.
As I said, it is usually to the economic self-interest of a license holder to maintain cordial and friendly relations with the people of the area where his establishment is located; they are a source of business to him. There are some establishments that attract patrons from areas distant from the precinct, either because of a particular form of entertainment, glowing restaurant reviews, proximity to sports arenas, etc. (The people living near sports arenas show an extraordinary patience with absurd activities of the fans, but it is also true that the sports bars make extraordinary efforts to keep the locals happy. Properly speaking, the two groups establish a mutually advantageous economic truce. The saloons and restaurants are sources of employment — as in the area itself — and the locals provide some patronage during off-season months).
As to the premises that cater to different clientele, striptease fans, loud music fans, youth groups, bikers — not to mention premises that cater to the drug culture or other illegal activities — these groups try to keep the irritation level of the activity to a minimum because they know about the local-option laws. And if enough of their neighbors get pushed hard enough, they can respond by eliminating the problem through the ballot box.
To suggest, as the majority opinion does, that a voter who is disgruntled by the refusal of a bartender to serve him while inebriated can eliminate a license, is to ridicule the intelligence of the voters. To imagine that such a malcontent could convince a majority of the voters in a precinct (or even the smaller number called for to place the issue on the ballot) to take up the cudgel of the ballot on such a silly crusade is, itself, ridiculous.
The fact is the motivation behind such a difficult task as securing signatures on a petition and votes in the ballot box is one the majority should well understand: cost-benefit. The term may not be used but, as we know, it is the real motivation behind most human activity. I should think that this constitutionally permitted reason should be both understood and applauded.
As we have seen, most liquor license holders are benign influences in the areas around them, even serving to enhance the livability and property values of the neighborhood. Nevertheless, under the original rule of local option, the precinct had only one choice: vote entirely dry or put up with the one or more festering sores.
The right of the precincts to vote entirely dry was endorsed by this court (indeed, by the author of the majority opinion in the instant case). And if there is only one such establishment in the precinct and only one possible target of the vote-to-go-dry, it still passes constitutional muster. Apparently, the constitutional rights of an individual liquor license holder increase with the number of licenses in a precinct; they can take shelter in the acceptance of their good brothers-in-business and thumb their noses at the legitimate wishes of the residents of the neighborhood.
The legislature recognized the unfairness of this all-or-nothing approach to the wet/dry dilemma when they amended the local-option law to permit a referendum on the issue of whether a single (or, I assume, more than one) liquor establishment shall continue to be licensed in the precinct. This is so that the businesses which have decent regard for the preservation of the community standards can remain and their property rights not scuttled by a bad apple in the liquor dispensing barrel.
The majority opinion agrees with the Supreme Court that the Constitution does not forbid direct democracy. What seems to be the theme of the opinion is that, under the local-option rule, voters can exercise their franchise without “standards to guide the voters in deciding whether to void a liquor license.” One assumes by this, “judicial guides”. And, of course, such is the price of democracy; the voters may make a choice that their betters may not approve.
*625The majority opinion points to the use of judicial instructions in jury trials and describes the referendum (or election) process as an “electoral free-for-all” that might result “in serious error”. Just so. The process of democratic government does not rely on stern lectures from the highly educated. The least of us has the right to express himself or herself in the ballot box without deference to the ruling classes. It is also of interest to note that a precinct, if so inclined, can, as this court (and the author of the instant majority opinion) has ruled, snuff out the license rights of one, or any number of, licensees in the precinct without the splendid guidance of court or city fathers, providing that all the licensees in the precinct are eliminated. Why is the same use of the ballot box constitutionally infirm if the licensees affected are fewer than all of those in the precinct? If “guidance” is required to make the decision of the voters constitutionally kosher, why not require that such guidance (whatever that might be!) be required for all referenda that affect a property right (bond issues, annexation, establishment of school districts and mosquito abatement districts, etc.)?
It is not accurate to say, as the majority opinion does, that, before a referendum is undertaken “the voters have already decided to permit businesses” like that “in the neighborhood” because they could vote the precinct dry if they wanted to. What is more accurate is that they made no decision at all; the city makes it for them. It is probably also safe to say that not one voter in fifty even knows about the local-option rule and only a'crisis in the neighborhood eventually may serve to enlighten them — and then after every other avenue to correct a problem involving a liquor licensee (petitioning the city liquor commission, calling the police, calling the alderman, etc.) has failed.
The deprivation of property, discussed by the majority, occurs in exactly the same way whether the voters wipe out all of the liquor vendors in a precinct or a single vendor. I fail to see how a total deprivation of “property rights” that affects two or more owners is more constitutional than the same action which affects only one liquor emporium.
It is worthwhile considering how much trouble such a referendum is to the people of the precinct. First, to focus the residents on the way to solve the problem (I’m willing to assume the existence of the problem and knowledge of its existence among the neighbors), then to secure sufficient signatures to get the matter placed on the ballot, and then to campaign successfully enough to get a majority of the voters to vote against an existing business. The effort involved and the work entailed should at least indicate to us the incredible problem the licensee must be causing. And it is a fact that, like Socrates, the liquor dispenser has an opportunity to present his defense to the jury (i.e., the voters); he can campaign as hard against the referendum as his opponents argue for it; it might even convince him to reform before the vote and become a good neighbor.
I believe that the legislature of Illinois and its court system can protect the rights of its citizens in the field of liquor control and neighborhood safety. If it is constitutionally proper for the voters of a precinct to ban the only bar in the area, or all the bars in the neighborhood, I cannot believe that it is constitutionally improper for the legislature to authorize, and the voters to exercise, a right to prohibit the operation of a particular liquor license. There is no constitutional right to be in the liquor business and I cannot believe that the authorization of a referendum as to whether a particular saloon shall be permitted in a neighborhood is an invasion of a constitutional right. I suspect it depends on whose constitutional property rights should concern us. I think the rights of the people who live in the area should have our deepest concern.
I would affirm the dismissal of the case.