Horne v. Hernando County, 74--202
Decision Date | 19 July 1974 |
Docket Number | No. 74--202,74--202 |
Citation | 297 So.2d 606 |
Parties | Virgil HORNE and Ruth Horne, his wife, Appellants, v. HERNANDO COUNTY, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, et al., Appellees. |
Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Frank McClung, Brooksville, for appellants.
Robert Bruce Snow, Brooksville, for appellees.
Appellants attack the constitutionality of a county ordinance which prohibits the issuance of alcoholic beverage licenses to any new business located within 1500 feet of an established church or school. Appellants assert that the ordinance constitutes a favoring of religion contrary to the constitutional mandate that there shall be no law 'repecting an establishment of religion.' 1
Provisions prohibiting the sale of liquor within a prescribed distance of churches have often been before the courts of Florida. E.g. State v. Cochran, Fla.1959, 114 So.2d 797; Shipbaugh v. City of Sarasota, Fla.1957, 94 So.2d 728; State v. Permenter, Fla.1952, 59 So.2d 773; State v. Fuller, 1939, 136 Fla. 788, 187 So. 148; Abenkay Realty Corp. v. Dade County, Fla.App.3d, 1966, 185 So.2d 777. In State v. City of Miami, 1946, 156 Fla. 784, 24 So.2d 705, the court said:
'. . . The State, in the exercise of its police power, may enact a valid law forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors in a particular locality such as prohibiting sales within specified distances of Churches, schools and other buildings. . . .'
However, the precise question presented by this appeal has never been adjudicated in Florida.
The constitutional limitations upon the state with respect to giving preference to religion were reviewed in Johnson v. Presbyterian Homes of Synod of Fla., Inc., Fla.1970, 239 So.2d 256, in which a tax exemption for homes for the aged was held constitutional even as applied to homes owned by religious organizations and operated primarily for religious purposes. The court pointed out that even if the exemption were regarded as benefiting religious organizations, it did not follow that the statute violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 2 The court said:
See also Nohrr v. Brevard County Educational Fac. Auth., Fla.1971, 247 So.2d 304, in which the court validated county revenue bonds issued to finance the construction of...
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Grendel's Den, Inc. v. Goodwin
...also point to two state decisions that upheld liquor laws involving churches against constitutional attack. In Horne v. Hernando County, 297 So.2d 606 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1974), the statute differed from the present section 16C in that it barred all new alcohol sales within 1500 feet of an est......
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Arno v. Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission
...S.Ct. 2337, 49 L.Ed.2d 179 (1976).20 See discussion Supra at ---- - ---- (Mass.Adv.Sh. (1979) 109-111). See also Horne v. Hernando County, 297 So.2d 606, 607 (Fla.App.1974).21 The Legislature, in its judgment, may extend this benefit on a selective basis. Zayre Corp. v. Attorney Gen., 372 M......
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State v. Vogenthaler
...Columbia, 283 A.2d 819 (D.C.App.1971); ordinance prohibiting sale of liquor within a specified distance of a church, Horne v. Hernando County, 297 So.2d 606 (Fla.App.1974); court construction of testator intent in creating a trust benefitting Protestant Christian Hospitals, First National B......
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Grendel's Den, Inc. v. Goodwin
...a church. Moreover, no constitutional challenge was either advanced, considered, or decided in Rusch. The second, Horne v. Hernando County, 297 So.2d 606 (Fla.App.1974), is distinguishable because it upheld a county ordinance flatly banning licenses within 1500 feet of a church or The third......