Coyote Ugly: A legal analysis
If you ever wonder whether something is legal under the Pennsylvania Liquor Code, you can easily fire off an email to the staff attorney, and she’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks with an advisory opinion. For educational purposes, the opinions are posted here.
Most of the opinions have something to do with the distribution of alcohol - fairly dry stuff. And then there’s this one posted last spring, spurred by a question sent in by someone identified only as “Nicole”:
RE: “Coyote Ugly” Practices
ISSUE: This correspondence is in response to your e-mail, dated April 1, 2008, in which you state that the bar at which you are employed would like to have “a coyote ugly thing” on Friday nights. You ask what you can and cannot do in this regard. More specifically, you ask if you can dance on top of the bar and pour shots into patrons’ mouths.
OPINION: Since you do not explain the meaning of “a coyote ugly thing,” this office cannot provide you with information pertaining to that type of activity. However, with regard to dancing on the bar, please be advised that section 493(10) of the Liquor Code [47 P.S. § 4-493(10)] prohibits liquor licensees from permitting any lewd, immoral, or improper entertainment in a licensed premises or in any place operated in connection therewith. [See also 40 Pa. Code § 5.32(b)]…
With regard to pouring shots into patrons’ mouths, please be advised that the Liquor Code prohibits any person from providing any alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person. [47 P.S. § 4-493(1)]. Please also be advised that the Board’s Regulations prohibit allowing for an unlimited amount of alcohol for a set price and restrict discount pricing practices of alcoholic beverages. [40 Pa. Code § 13.102]. A retail liquor licensee is permitted to give one (1) free alcoholic beverage to adult patrons on its premises, provided the giving of the alcoholic beverage is not contingent upon the purchase of any other alcoholic beverage and is limited to one (1) standard-sized alcoholic beverage per patron in any offering. [40 Pa. Code § 13.53]. A standard-sized alcoholic beverage is twelve (12) fluid ounces of a malt or brewed beverage, four (4) fluid ounces of wine (including fortified wine), and one-and-one-half (1½) fluid ounces of liquor. [Id.].
So, if I’m reading this right, the behavior illustrated below is basically legal in Pennsylvania, assuming:
- That’s exactly 1.5 fluid oz. of Jack going down the dude’s gullet.
- The babe’s tramp stamp doesn’t say, “Lick Here.”
