The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Prop 8 Work Brings Olson, Boies to Philadelphia

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The Equality Forums Global GLBT Summit is being held in Philadelphia this week and will near its culmination Saturday night with a dinner honoring two noted lawyers who surprised some by coming down on the same side of the gay marriage issue.

Now, famed litigators David Boies and Ted Olson will come together Saturday to be honored by the Equality Forum with its International Role Model Award for their representation of two plaintiffs challenging Californias Proposition 8 a ban on gay marriage.

David Boies, managing partner with Boies Schiller & Flexner, and Ted Olson, a current Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner and former U.S. Solicitor General under George W. Bush, had been adversaries in 2000 when Olson represented Bush and Boies represented former Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore.

Neither is a stranger to big-impact, high-profile cases. And perhaps no case was more closely watched this year, and a decision still so eagerly awaited in, than Perry v. Schwarzenneger.

Abbe Fletman, a shareholder with Flaster Greenberg, has long been on the national board of governors of the Equality Forum and will be introducing Olson and Boies Saturday night.

As a trial lawyer, Im deeply honored to be introducing David Boies and Ted Olson, Fletman said Thursday. As I will say on Saturday, to me they are rock stars.

Fletman said if someone were to have called her a year before the Prop 8 cases began and said Ted Olson would be representing a plaintiff, she wouldnt have believed them.

I think it says something very positive for civility in the profession that two people who are often professional antagonists could come together and work as co-counsel in a single case, Fletman said. I think thats how the profession should work.

The Equality Forums week-long summit concludes Sunday with a National Same-Sex Commitment Ceremony followed by parties and a mass.

Supreme Court Cuts Off Convenience Store’s Beer Sales

By Peter Hall
Of the Legal Staff

The state Supreme Court has ruled that a Western Pennsylvania convenience store chain does not meet the state Liquor Code's requirements to sell six packs of beer for take out.

The 5-1 decision in Malt Beverages Distributors Association v. Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is the end of the line for Sheetz, one of two Pennsylvania retailers that ventured into the realm of beer and malt beverage sales. Until recently, the sale of beer in quantities less than a keg or a case was the exclusive domain of neighborhood taverns and pizza shops or other restaurants.

Under Pennsylvania's liquor law, a retail dispenser may sell up to two six-packs of beer per customer for take out if they serve hot food and have a dining area. The Altoona-based Sheetz chain began selling beer at its gas station convenience stores after adding an in-store restaurant to satisfy the requirements of the liquor code.

Sheetz, however, did not allow patrons to drink beer on the premises. In a challenge to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's licensing decision, the Commonwealth Court in February 2007 ruled Sheetz could not sell beer because by prohibiting consumption on the premises, it does not meet the definition of a retail dispenser. Justice Max Baer, writing for the Supreme Court majority, affirmed that decision. Justice Debra Todd filed a concurring opinion. Justice J. Michael Eakin dissented.

Wegmans, a Rochester, N.Y.-based grocery store chain, also began selling beer for take out or for consumption in its "Market Cafe" restaurant. The beer distributors association has said it will appeal a March decision by the Commonwealth Court upholding the PLCB decision to allow the supermarket to sell six packs.

- Read more about the decision online Tuesday and in Wednesday's Legal.