{"id":14162,"date":"2024-11-28T05:03:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T06:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14162"},"modified":"2024-11-28T06:55:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T06:55:42","slug":"judge-allows-wedding-barn-lawsuit-over-wisconsin-liquor-law-to-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14162","title":{"rendered":"Judge Allows Wedding Barn Lawsuit over Wisconsin Liquor Law to Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/judge-allows-wedding-barn-lawsuit-over-wisconsin-liquor-law-to-continue\/tcsquare\/2024\/11\/28\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A liquor lawsuit filed against the Wisconsin Department of Revenue by two small business owners will continue after a judge denied DOR\u2019s attempts to dismiss it.<\/p>\n

The case, brought by Farmview Event Barn LLC and Monarch Valley Weddings and Events LLC with legal aid from law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, has argued recent changes in Wisconsin liquor laws pertaining to event venues\u00a0are unconstitutionally burdensome<\/a>\u00a0and essentially regulates the businesses out of existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great win for our clients and for anyone opposed to government-sponsored cronyism and economic protectionism in our state,\u201d WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber said. \u201cThis legislation is nothing more than an attack on their businesses to limit or eliminate competition\u2013and those facts will finally come to light through the legal process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Act 73, adopted last year and effective January 1, 2026, included a change aimed at wedding barns that allow people to bring their own beer and liquor to their parties.\u00a0Under Act 73<\/a>, wedding barns must either get a no sale event venue permit and be limited to six events per year or get a liquor license like other venues that hold weddings and similar events.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says that the amended law, by upending the plaintiffs\u2019 entire business models, violates their rights as guaranteed by the Wisconsin Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfair that the State of Wisconsin has chosen to single out the few barn venues that are a destination only. We lease our space to couples wishing to have a country-style wedding,\u201d Monarch Valley Wedding and Events owner Daniel Gallagher said. \u201cRequiring us to be a liquor retailer in a dry township is causing our small, family-run business \u2013 which already pays state and local real estate taxes \u2013 to go out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmview Event Barn owner Jean Bahn said the legislation was designed by special interest groups and hurts small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not in this to become a millionaire, we are just trying to get by,\u201d Farmview Event Barn owner Jean Bahn said. \u201cHosting low-cost weddings in our barn allows us to pay for maintenance and updates of our home and farm equipment to keep our farm up and running. This legislation was designed by special interests in Madison to limit competition, and that\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux is an apprentice reporter covering Michigan and Wisconsin for The Center Square<\/a>, under the mentorship of Midwest Regional Editor J.D. Davidson. Her work focuses on election-related news in these two states. Previously, she interned at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se graduated with a major in politics from Hillsdale College in May of 2024, where she produced award-winning radio journalism.
\nPhoto \u201cFarmview Event Barn, LLC\u201d by Farmview Event Barn, LLC.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The post Judge Allows Wedding Barn Lawsuit over Wisconsin Liquor Law to Continue<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/judge-allows-wedding-barn-lawsuit-over-wisconsin-liquor-law-to-continue\/tcsquare\/2024\/11\/28\/ by Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux \u00a0 A liquor lawsuit filed against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14163,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14162\/revisions\/14163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}