OMAHA — A lawyer for an Omaha convenience store chain said it was unfair to allow Nebraska bars and restaurants to sell "to-go" cocktails, while prohibiting convenience stores from peddling beer through their take-out windows.

James Carson, an attorney for Mega Saver stores, told a state liquor board that a new state law — passed this spring to continue a COVID-related exception — was unconstitutional "special legislation" that favors bars and restaurants but discriminates against convenience stores.

Carson is pushing for nine charges of illegal sales of alcohol to occupants of motor vehicles through Mega Saver take-out windows to be dismissed.

The violations occurred roughly one month after Governor Pete Ricketts passed a law that would allow bars and restaurants to sell to-go cocktails and beer in sealed containers. This was an attempt to help keep bars and restaurants afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic which disproportionately impacted these establishments.

Over 20 states also legalized similar laws to aid those businesses.

Carson, however, argued that if the law had been designed to limit the amount of people entering into an establishment for these to-go beverages, then Mega Saver and other gas stations with drive through windows should also be allowed to sell to-go beverages.

Carson said that the Mega Saver stores had sold beer and liquor through its take-out windows while the governor's emergency order, enacted in March 2020, was in effect. But he said that store managers were unaware that Ricketts had rescinded his order in March of this year, and they had continued the practice.

Their continuation of sale after the order had been rescinded caused a state trooper to purchase alcohol through nine different Mega Saver drive throughs on July 1.

Carson argued the law was unconstitutional "special legislation" to no avail.

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