What in world are “sleepers?” What kind of a legislative word is “sleepers?” Who makes this stuff up?
During each legislative session, starting decades ago, most scrutiny and debate falls on a relatively small handful of bills that move through the legislature, often becoming law. Too often, without much, if any, scrutiny or debate, hundreds of (mostly) short laws are enacted that, by design, are slowly rotting the fabric of our society and security. These bills may be observed quietly moving through the legislative process, their unthreatening demeanor and “sleepy” movement hardly disturbed as they become law. And, truly, those involved in their passage are “asleep at the wheel” as these cleverly designed “sleepers” pass into the body of law in every state and increase the police power of government.
The primary danger of “sleepers" lies in their subtle trends, modifying human behavior and redefining and reshaping long established methods of human interaction. One example is the growing number of bills that transfer responsibilities from individuals who seek services or products in our society to those who are willing to provide mutual exchanges of services or goods. This transfer of responsibilities is illustrated in S184.
A review of close to 1000 already pre-filed or newly introduced bills (as of January 27) contains a large number of bills of the type often given perfunctory passage with little or no attention, while covering a wide variety of topics. These bills appear in such diverse areas as landlord responsibilities, rental agreements, law enforcement, insurance, restaurants and establishments that serve alcohol (e.g. S184), education, health, workforce, child welfare, family law, substance abuse and control, and more.
Introduced in the Senate on January 14th, 2025, S184 was not pre-filed. Not being pre-filed can be an advantage for getting a bill passed, as bills introduced during the session may move quickly and may be missed by those trying to keep up with new bills and rally opposition if warranted. This very short one page bill might have slipped through unnoticed, unlikely to encounter opposition, had it not been noticed by a vigilant citizen familiar with the legislative process.
S184 starts by defining “Alcohol” in Section 15-3-710(A)(1) before proceeding to (A)(2) where“licensee,” is defined to mean “… any person or entity licensed to sell alcohol by the State of South Carolina or any agency or department thereof.” If S184 becomes law, this “licensee” can be held liable for any damage, injury or even death that may occur after a customer leaves the establishment, if he or she is intoxicated. To some people this sounds like a wonderful idea. Somehow unknown tragedies will be prevented by thwarting the people who will cause these tragedies. Actions of other people along the way, who are responsible for foreseeing danger and preventing crimes, will change the future. If those responsible for intervention under this law, if enacted, fail, however, they can still be held responsible because they should have intervened in someone else’s behavior. On the surface this might seem like a prudent preventive measure.
Obviously this presents significant insurance implications. Already these kinds of businesses struggle with rapidly rising insurance costs. Making the licensee liable for something someone else does, particularly after leaving the establishment where the licensee has no knowledge or control of that person’s subsequent behavior, is a gross transfer of personal responsibility from a perpetrator to someone trying to make a living. Insurance companies will have to protect their financial security by increasing premiums significantly to be prepared for potentially huge financial awards to victims of the actions of intoxicated persons who were served liquor at an identified business. Many business owners may simply be unable to afford the costs that will result, with serious implications for their livelihoods and ability to provide services and products that have endured for hundreds of years.
Many other problems and dangers are inherent if such intervention becomes a legal obligation. Keeping track of how many drinks someone in a bar has consumed, watching him or her for evidence of becoming intoxicated, dealing with the dangers of confronting this person or refusing service, subjective judgment, and many other potential issues should be recognized as placing significant and unreasonable burdens on the business owner. No one can predict the future, and it is not always possible to accurately assess another person’s level of intoxication, which sometimes does not become evident immediately. It is a nightmare responsibility with unpredictable complications and barriers to effective implementation.
This might appear to make sense if bartenders or others routinely forced their customers to consume more than was prudent. Or if there were not a multitude of practical and subjective issues that cannot be resolved by making a law about things that are not black and white. To force any “licensee" to attempt to monitor and essentially police their clientele’s drinking and be subject to devastating consequences should be recognized as excessive overreach. Making business owners criminally liable for the choices and actions of their clientele is a miscarriage of freedom and responsibility and dangerous to our society. This kind of warping of standards of conduct and responsibility is leading us to tyranny under the guise of a false sense of security.
The possible consequences of S184 are examples of what can happen in a society where individual responsibility has been almost eradicated, people are being “trained” to monitor one another, and innocent people can be held liable for the consequences for another person’s crime. Vigilance and resistance is imperative if we are not to move into a future of totalitarian government regulation of every aspect of our lives.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute legal or professional advice. ConservaTruth assumes no liability for any actions taken based on this content. Read more.
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