(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in an eastern Iowa case involving alcohol sales to minors. Two minors were able to buy alcohol at Beecher Liquor in Dubuque during a police compliance check in 2022. The owner of Beecher Liquor agreed to the 500 dollar fine for the first violation, but appealed the 15-hundred dollar fine and 30 day license suspension for the second violation. He says the law requires the increased penalty if a second violation happens within two years of the first, and since the two violations occurred on the same day five minutes apart they should be considered one.

The Supreme Court denied the appeal, ruling there is no minimum time passage requirement in the code between violations. Justice Dana Oxley wrote a dissenting opinion. She says the code is not meant to punish the number of alcohol sales involved in a particular violation. It is meant to punish persistent conduct more severely only after a licensee has previously been convicted or found in violation and the second enhanced penalty should be dismissed.

Justices Susan Christensen, Mathew McDermott joined the dissent to make it a 4-3 ruling.