Texas Lawmakers Consider Earlier Sunday Alcohol Sales: "This Is Freedom"

Anyone who's attempted to purchase mimosa supplies too early on a Sunday morning knows the specific shame and frustration that accompanies those bans on morning-alcohol sales. (I was once turned away from the register at a grocery store in Chicago as I held two bottles of prosecco and some Simply Orange while still clad in pajama pants.) Now Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would ease Sunday-morning alcohol rules a bit, allowing the sale of beer and wine to begin at 10 a.m. rather than noon.

The Texas Tribune reports the Texas House included the provision in a broader bill addressing the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which passed Friday on a 135-0 vote. Proponents of the earlier sales at grocery and convenience stores note that Texas can order mimosas and Bloody Marys at country clubs at 10 a.m. The bill now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers could alter the Sunday-morning sales language or strip it altogether. In what is surely the greatest quote you or I will read all week, one state representative, Terry Canales, said of the bill's passage in the House: "This is freedom. This is eagles!" Yes, bald eagles clutching the Constitution in one talon and a mimosa in the other. (I would 100% buy that T-shirt.)

Also tucked into the larger Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission bill is an amendment allowing craft breweries to sell beer to-go from their taprooms, something that's legal in every state but Texas. While it may sound like that legislation is a no-brainer, in Texas, its fate in the Senate is anything but guaranteed.