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Ga. Const. art. III, § VI, ¶ VII — Regulation of alcoholic beverages | Georgia Constitution

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA

ARTICLE III. LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

Paragraph VII. Regulation of alcoholic beverages.

The State of Georgia shall have full and complete authority to regulate alcoholic beverages and to regulate, restrict, or prohibit activities involving alcoholic beverages. This regulatory authority of the state shall include all such regulatory authority as is permitted to the states under the Twenty-First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This regulatory authority of the state is specifically delegated to counties and municipalities of the state for the purpose of regulating, restricting, or prohibiting the exhibition of nudity, partial nudity, or depictions of nudity in connection with the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages; and such delegated regulatory authority may be exercised by the adoption and enforcement of regulatory ordinances by the counties and municipalities of this state. A general law exercising such regulatory authority shall control over conflicting provisions of any local ordinance but shall not preempt any local ordinance provisions not in direct conflict with general law.

Editor's notes.

- The constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 1994, p. 2018, § 1) providing that the state shall have full and complete authority to regulate alcoholic beverages in any manner permitted under the twenty-first amendment to the United States Constitution was approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting at the general election held on November 8, 1994.

(Ga. Const. 1983, Art. 3, § 6, Para. 7; Ga. L. 1994, p. 2018, § 1/HR 709.)

Law reviews.

- For article, "Regulation of Alcoholic Beverages Generally," see 28 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 255 (2011). For note on the 1994 enactment of this paragraph, see 11 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 33 (1994).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Constitutionality.

- Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. VI, Para. VII does not violate freedom of expression as guaranteed by the first amendment or the prohibition against multiple subject matters in the state Constitution, and the wording of the ballot concerning the amendment did not violate the due process guarantees of the fourteenth amendment. Goldrush II v. City of Marietta, 267 Ga. 683, 482 S.E.2d 347 (1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 818, 118 S. Ct. 70, 139 L. Ed. 2d 31 (1997).