Committee introduces RS 32467 to allow minors at movie screenings in registered historic theaters with beer-and-wine service

The House State Affairs Committee voted to introduce RS 32467, a draft request that would alter a statutory restriction preventing minors from attending movie screenings in venues that serve beer and wine when the venue occupies a registered historic theater.

Representative Clow told the committee a Twin Falls movie theater that operates screens and serves beer and wine cannot admit minors under current interpretation because the law requires the building to have been constructed originally as a theater, not later converted. Clow said the RS would remove that limiting wording so that a movie theater located in a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places could sell beer and wine and admit minors.

"Basically what this bill is doing is taking out some language that very simply says that if [a] movie theater has a beer and wine license and they are in a historic registered building ... that could sell beer and wine and allow minors to come to the movies too," Representative Clow said.

Representative Achilles moved to introduce RS 32,467; the committee voice-voted the motion carried. The transcript records no roll-call vote or speak-for counts.

The measure, as described in the committee, would narrow a present licensing limitation by changing statutory wording; if printed and advanced it would proceed to a formal bill-drafting and hearing process where stakeholders and regulators could comment. The RS as introduced references historic-building status (National Register of Historic Places) and alcohol licensing but does not, in the transcript, enumerate enforcement language or an effective date.