Crime & Traffic

The following question was originally submitted to John Roska, a lawyer Someone who represents clients in courts or who gives legal advice and writer for the weekly column "The Law Q&A" in the Champaign News Gazette. The article has been updated to include changes in the law and additional information.

Question

Why do stores make you put liquor purchases in a bag? Is there any law that requires it? Does it have anything to do with the illegal transport of alcohol?

Answer

Stores may insist that liquor sales be bagged, but no law requires it. “It’s the law” is a myth.

A company policy might require bagging liquor as proof of purchase. But it’s legal to exit a store showing a bottle of booze. However, it still is against the law to have an unopened alcoholic beverage on the street, nagged or not. The bottle of booze being in a paper bag will not protect an individual drinking from the bottle, even if it is concealed within the bag.

To confirm this, I contacted the Illinois Liquor Control Commission.  They said: “It may be that some local jurisdictions require alcohol to be bagged, but there is no state bagging law.”

Neither Champaign nor Urbana requires it. The closest that either town’s code comes is a Champaign provision. It says, “no person shall carry open containers of alcoholic liquor out of any liquor service premises.”

But the “container” they’re talking about is the can or bottle that came from the people who make the alcohol. It is not the bag the store puts the container into when you buy it. Urbana says the “original package” is the manufacturer’s:

• Bottle
• Flask 
• Jug 
• Can 
• Barrel 
• Keg 
• Hogshead
• Another receptacle

It is illegal for drivers to “transport” open containers of alcohol. That’s the offense of illegal transportation of alcohol in a motor vehicle.

It’s also illegal for either drivers or passengers to “carry, possess, or have” open containers. That’s the illegal possession of alcohol in a motor vehicle.

They’re two different offenses.  A driver could commit both. A driver transports alcohol illegally when a passenger possesses alcohol illegally.

Two things must combine to make transportation or possession illegal. First, the alcohol is NOT in “the original container and with the seal unbroken.” Second, the alcohol is “within the passenger area of any motor vehicle upon a highway.”

My expert tells me loose cans or bottles are legal, even removed from their original package. As long as each can or bottle has never been opened, it's okay.  A cooler full of never-opened beer, in the passenger area, is legal. 

What’s the “passenger area”?  Our Attorney General stated in 1976 that it’s “that portion of a motor vehicle which is primarily designed for or which is adapted or devoted to the carrying of passengers.”  That includes “any area of the motor vehicle which is readily accessible to the driver or a passenger.”

Trunks are often okay for opened containers. But maybe it wouldn't be okay if a folded down back seat makes the trunk “accessible.” 

Vans?  My expert said “a locked box or closed cooler in the far back end of the van” likely would avoid a ticket for . But, it would have to be if “no one’s draping their arm over the back seat.”

Accessibility, he emphasized, really comes down to the facts of the case.

If you’re 21 or over, illegal transportation is a moving violation, with 25 “points.”  A second offense within 12 months suspends your license.   If you’re under 21, the first illegal transportation suspends your license; the second one revokes it.

Alcohol carry-out and delivery

Businesses that sell alcohol can now offer pickup and delivery of mixed drinks. There are requirements to the new law. 

Cocktails must be delivered by someone who:

• Is over 21,
• Has been trained to serve Giving court documents to someone alcohol, and
• Can verify the customer is of drinking age.

The cocktails can't be delivered via a third-party A person or business involved in a court case in a role like plaintiff, petitioner, defendant, respondent, or intervenor. app. They also must come in a sealed and labeled container that would show if it was tampered with during delivery.