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OFF BEAT: Five Wives Vodka banned in Idaho because name may offend Mormons

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A Utah distillery is threatening to serve Idaho officials with much more than a stiff drink if they don’t reverse a recent ban on the company’s controversial brand of vodka.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office and State Liquor Division, Ogden, Utah-based Ogden’s Own Distillery indicated that it plans to file a federal lawsuit against the state if the Liquor Division has not rescinded its prohibition of the company’s Five Wives Vodka by June 19.

According to the letter, published online by the company’s attorney and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, state liquor officials informed Ogden’s Own on May 24 that it would not allow Ogden’s Own to sell the vodka in Idaho because it references polygamy and could be offensive to members of the Mormon Church.

Mr. Turley said the state’s ban violates constitutional free speech and interstate commerce protections, as well as equal protection and due process guarantees.

“It is about the right of fair and equal treatment for citizens in dealing with government agencies like your own,” Mr. Turley said in his letter to Idaho State Liquor Division Director Jeffrey Anderson.

“Businesses and citizens in Idaho have asked to buy ‘Five Wives Vodka,’ and…the only barrier has been neither market demand nor consumer preference, but the arbitrary imposition of religious objections to the packaging of the product.”

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