You read when my daughter-in-law and son planned their trip to the North State from the Czech Republic.
You read about some of the things they’ve done since their arrival.
Today’s is not a happy tourist story about Marie Domke, my beautiful, sophisticated, brilliant Czech daughter-in-law here for the holidays with her husband, my son Joe.
On Sunday night Joe and Marie joined a group of other young people – family and friends – at the Show Boat bar in Redding. When the group was asked for identification, everyone except Marie offered their California driver’s licenses.
Marie, 30, doesn’t have a California driver’s license, or a California identification card, so she offered her passport, which includes an ample photograph (that looks pretty much like her photo above, sans the gingerbread house), her full name and birth date. Clearly, the passport belongs to her. Clearly it stated her 1978 birth date, proof that she’s old enough to drink alcohol.
Not only did the bartender reject the passport as invalid identification, but the bartender asked Marie to leave.
Of course, the whole group left with Marie and went to another bar (Bombay’s), where Marie was served and everyone had a great time.
Marie’s a world traveler. She said that everywhere else she’s gone a passport is considered the gold standard of international identification.
We were flabbergasted by this story, but we assured Marie it was just some weird, isolated experience. Maybe the bartender had never seen a passport before. Maybe the bartender was unaccustomed to foreign tourists.
The next night Joe took Marie to WinRiver Casino (as part of her North State tour of local must-see stops), where they were asked for identification. Once again, Joe showed his California driver’s license, and Marie produced her passport. The WinRiver employee refused the passport as an acceptable form of i.d.
Marie was then banned from buying alcohol. *She was allowed to gamble.
“I don’t mind drinking Coke or Sprite,” Marie said later. “But what about tourists from other countries who want to buy alcohol? And will I need to be afraid that I will be kicked out of restaurants?”
I was convinced this was a quirky misunderstanding, but I learned otherwise after I did a quick Google search and found conversations like this one: No alcohol for Canadians? – where a Canadian woman was refused alcohol in San Francisco after she showed her passport as identification.
I called the Redding Alcohol, Beverage Control office for clarification. The local office referred me to the Sacramento office’s Public Information Officer, John Carr.
It is a small world after all, since John Carr grew up in Redding where his family is well known. I even went to school with one of John’s brothers.
John quickly researched the topic and provided ABC’s response to my emailed questions:
1. What if a restaurant did accept a passport as proof of identification? (Assuming the person was older than 21.) Is it against ABC rules for a licensed establishment to serve/sell alcohol to someone who only has a passport for identification?
There is no rule or law that requires a restaurant to check a patron’s identification. A restaurant can serve any patron, 21 years or older, and never have to check any identification. The law simply offers an affirmative defense if the licensee serves or sells to a patron under 21 years of age.
2. Would the licensee be fined or reprimanded? (If a patron used a passport as identification.)
Not if the person was 21 or older (or, if under 21, the licensee reasonably relied on a very good false identification).
3. Is ABC’s identification issue about age?
Age is a concern because underage drinking is a big problem. California law prohibits licensees from selling or furnishing alcoholic beverages to a person under the age of 21, or from even allowing a person under 21 from being in a public premise (bar). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (nhtsa.gov) the leading cause for serious deaths and injuries for persons under 25 years of age is drinking and driving. ABC’s mission is to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages to underage individuals. If so, older tourists probably wouldn’t be asked to show identification, but someone younger would be asked to show i.d., and his/her passport would confirm their age.
4. Is ABC’s identification issue about confirming the person’s true identity?
To clarify, it is not “ABC’s identification issue.” The law only allows the defense in cases of bona fide evidence of majority and identity, as defined. The physical description allows someone to check things like eye color, hair color, height and weight to ensure the i.d. belongs to that person.
5. . . . passports are deemed valid enough for Homeland Security, so why wouldn’t passports be acceptable for buying alcohol?
As a law enforcement agency, we must rely on standards outlined in the ABC Act (BP 25660) when advising licensees and pursuing administrative action. Research through the United States Department of Health and Human Services has proven that servers (bartenders, waitresses, clerks, etc) need a full physical description to properly compare the identification to the person presenting the identification as theirs in order to make a proper determination if the presenter is of legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages. As a result, court decisions have ruled that California law requires that the identification contain a full physical description. Some passports (including U.S. passports) may not contain all the information required by statute. If the passport does not contain a person’s full physical description, then it doesn’t meet the standard required in California statute. This isn’t ABC’s policy, it is state law. Any discrepancy between what is required under federal law for entry into the country and under state law for establishing a defense to a sale or furnishing of an alcoholic beverage to a minor is an issue for the Legislature.
6. Does ABC have some kind of a card it can issue foreign tourists that would allow them to use it for identification?
ABC doesn’t issue ID cards. The DMV issues driver’s licenses and obviously the federal government issues passports. More information about how to obtain an identification card from California DMV can be found at: dmv.ca.gov/idinfo/idcard.htm.
Hope this helps. Obviously we want any visitors to California to enjoy their stay here and hope that your acquaintance has a terrific time while visiting.
John Carr
ABC PIO
So the issue boiled down to ABC Act (BP 25660) – a California identification standard that requires a photograph, the person’s name, birth date and a physical description.
The sticking point in Marie’s case was that her passport lacks a written physical description: height, weight, sex, color of eyes and hair.
But isn’t a picture worth a thousand words?
Regarding the physical descriptions on driver’s licenses:
How many women’s true weights differ vastly from the lower number they’ve provided for their driver’s license? How many men’s actual heights differ vastly from the higher number they’ve provided for their driver’s license?
I thanked John for his research, but confessed that his answers left me more confused than ever. I was no closer to having an answer for Marie for the next time she visited a California bar or restaurant than I was before I emailed him.
John put me in touch with Chris Albrecht, district administrator for the ABC, who said he hoped to simplify things for me. Here are the highlights of our conversation:
– He had no answer regarding why the California legislature saw fit to include the physical description requirement in the statute, but he said the ABC must follow the law. “We have no ability to interpret the law,” Albrecht said. “The law is the law. We have no ability to change it.”
– He said Marie’s experiences were far from isolated. In fact, he said, his office receives calls every week from people who complain about the statute, sometimes even the tourists themselves.
– He acknowledged that it could be difficult for foreign tourists – especially those who appear youthful – when they’re asked for identification, but have only a passport to show. He sympathized with the challenges tourists face when they’re here.
– He did say there’s no ABC violation if a server or bartender accepts a passport as identification and serves the foreign tourist alcohol, assuming the patron is older than 21.
– On a related note, he said there’s nothing in the law that says they have to ask for identification in the first place.
– He said that businesses that claim passports are invalid have set that as their own policy.
– He could not think of any government document – excluding a driver’s license – that includes the criteria required in 25660. (Note to readers, can you think of any?)
– The bottom line: “I think the answer is very clear,” he said. “There might not be a solution right now; there may not be a satisfactory solution that you want to achieve. I don’t have the answer, unless the law is changed.”
– He added that 25660 may not make sense, but then, many laws don’t.
In the meantime, young adult Americans travel the world and expect no problems when ordering a glass of wine or beer.
And in the meantime, young adult foreign tourists visit California where they’re encouraged to shop, sleep in hotels, and even gamble. But they risk being refused service and even asked to leave establishments that sell alcohol if the travelers only possess passports for identification.
Welcome to California. If you want to drink without being hassled over your passport, you might want to contact the DMV for a California identification card.
Until then, let’s see what we can do about changing 25660.
*p.s. Albrecht guessed that the reason Marie was allowed to gamble at the casino but not buy alcohol might be because the ABC has jurisdiction over the alcohol-related part of Indian casinos, but not gambling.
