Texas A&M University School of Law Texas A&M Law Scholarship Faculty Scholarship 1-2008 Bootleggers, Baptists, and Televangelists Andrew P. Morriss Texas A&M University School of Law,
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[email protected]. I L I A I L I T Y There's a new player in Yandle's classic dynamic. Bootleggers, Baptists, and Televangeli sts BY ANDREW P. MORRISS University of Illinois n 1998, 46 state attorneys general, together with a and Baptists shared a common interest in restricting Sunday group of private attorneys, reached a Master Set- sales. The Baptists, of course, opposed liquor sales generally tlement Agreement with Philip Morris, R.J. for moral reasons. The bootleggers wanted to restrict compe- Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, the tition on Sundays from legal liquor sellers. While the boot- nation's four largest cigarette manufacturers. The leggers could hardly lobby explicitly for Sunday closing on the agreement effectively imposed a hefty tax on smok- grounds that it would allow them to charge more for their ers nationwide to fund billions of dollars in payouts product, they could use Baptist arguments to support politi- to the states (and the participating private attorneys) and cre- cians who publicly supported Sunday closing laws.