implications. in other words, nobody has got a right to have a liquor license. that was not what was at issue here. what was at issue here was that the government, the state, can t let some random church, a school, some oth precedent from 1982, that decision. that professor who took it to the united states and won named lawrence tribe has sort of set off a flare warning that the texas abortion ban that the u.s. supreme court let pass into law last week, he said that s basically the grendel s den case
and even today, 50 years after they were founded, as they re celebrating their 50th anniversary of being in business with the collapsible doggie bowl and all the rest ofit, even today grendel s den has a site supporting their case on their website. it s the same place where you can buy the shot glasses and the onesies and everything else. they have a link for that citation to that court case because they re very proud of that case. because they won that case. massachusetts law said the state, the government, had the power to give or withhold a license to serve liquor, which you need in order to operate a bar. but massachusetts then delegated effectively that power to a private entity, to churches. the holy cross armenian catholic church used that power to say that grendel s den could not have a liquor license.
with the collapsible doggie bowl and all the rest of it, even today grendel s den has a site supporting their case on their website. it s the same place where you can buy the shot glasses and the onesies and everything else. they have a link for that citation to that court case because they re very proud of that case. because they won that case. massachusetts law said the state, the government, had the power to give or withhold a license to serve liquor, which you need in order to operate a bar. but massachusetts then delegated effectively that power to a private entity, to churches. the holy cross armenian catholic church used that power to say that grendel s den could not have a liquor license. grendel s den sued. they got a really good, somewhat famous lawyer to argue their
side all the way up to the supreme court of the united states. and in 1982, in fact, in an 8-1 decision authored by the chief justice, the united states supreme court sided with the bar, they sided with grendel s den. nothing against the church, of course, but the supreme court ruled that massachusetts had crossed into unconstitutional territory when it, quote, delegated to private nongovernmental entities a power normally invested in agencies of government. the court said by doing that, the law substituted the church s own views, whatever they may be and regardless of what they re based on, the church substituted the church s own motivations to act, quote, for the reason decision making of a public legislative body acting on evidence and guided bystanders on issues with significant economic and political implications. in other words, nobody has got a right to have a liquor license. that was not what was at issue
then if you walked out the back door of grendel s den, the next building you would encounter across the alley, little courtyard thing there, was a church, the holy cross catholic church. that church has since moved out to the suburbs. i think where the church was is now a pete s coffee. i don t know, it s all changed over the years. so they applied to be a bar and their door across the back alley was a door to a church. that was really, really important. because a massachusetts state law at the time gave churches the right and the opportunity to veto any liquor license application for any business that was near to them. and even today, 50 years after they were founded, as they re celebrating their 50th anniversary of being in business