Alcoholic beverage regulators in Idaho appear to have been cowed by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. After the Idaho State Liquor Division announced earlier this week it was prohibiting a boutique vodka over fears that the spirit’s name—Five Wives—would offend state’s Mormon population—Turley announced yesterday that he would take up the distillery’s fight to overturn the decision.
But within hours of Turley’s letter to the liquor board, the body reversed its decision and realized that allowing Five Wives Vodka to be sold in state-owned liquor stores would be preferable to being buried in legal briefs.
More than 25 percent of Idahoans are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which outlawed polygamy in 1890 but is still dogged by its founding doctrine that allowed men to take more than one wife. The Idaho State Liquor Division cited this sensitivity in announcing the ban on Five Wives Vodka—which is produced in neighboring Utah by Ogden’s Own Distillery—but it resulted in Turley’s threat of legal action.
It did not take long for the regulatory agency to change its opinion, the Associated Press reports:
“In a shared desire to avoid unnecessary litigation costs to Ogden’s Own Distillery and the people of Idaho, today we have informed the makers of `Five Wives’ vodka that we will immediately begin processing special order requests for both on-premise licensees and retail consumers,” [Idaho State Liquor Division Director John] Anderson said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
In a post on his website today, Turley seemed pretty pleased with the change of heart. “Admitting error is not an easy thing to do in a public controversy but it was the right thing to do not just for Ogden’s Own but the people of Idaho,” he wrote, adding that the decision to allow Five Wives to be stocked on Idaho liquor store shelves is an affirmation of free speech and free enterprise.
Turley also said that his potential lawsuit was “always respectful of the views of Mormons and others who might find the title of the product offensive.” That jibes with what Ogden’s Own said yesterday—the distillery didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, though it knew the name “Five Wives” would remind people of polygamy.
Still, Turley sees the development as good reason to celebrate civil liberties by enjoying a stiff drink:
The decision to reverse the actions taken against Ogden’s Own is a legitimate basis for celebration. It is particularly fortuitous that the very object of this particular first amendment fight can be used to celebrate its protection. Of course, as a lawyer of Irish heritage, fighting for both free speech and alcohol brought everything I hold dear together in one case. I will be opening my bottle of Five Wives Vodka tonight and enjoy the clean (and reasonably priced) taste of freedom.
