Skip to content

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020

Have restrictions on public drinking been weakened during the pandemic?

Allegra Taylor, Gigafact
yes

The coronavirus-related shutdowns appear to be weakening longstanding U.S. laws against drinking in public. The laws originated during Prohibition, and in recent times states have repealed laws against public intoxication in favor of more easily enforced limits on open alcohol containers.

Some states have loosened restrictions to keep bars in business during the coronavirus outbreak. The governor of Texas has hinted its new takeout policy may become permanent. In Baltimore, to avoid overcrowding in jails, the city has said it will dismiss many non-violent criminal charges, including open container violations.

Racial disparities in enforcement lend support to calls for abolishing the laws. An analysis of New York public drinking citations found that since January only 7% of those were issued to white people, even though whites are 33% of the city's population.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.