California law provides that any licensee of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control or agent or employee of the licensee, who sells, gives or delivers to any person any alcoholic beverage between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. of the same day, and any person who knowingly purchases any alcoholic beverages between those hours, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 25631. Thus, if it 3 in the morning and you are looking for a drink, you are out of luck in California. Your luck, however, may soon change as a result of legislation recently passed by the California legislature.

AB 3206 (McKinnor) allows the sale of alcoholic beverages between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. at an on-sale licensed premises operated in a fully enclosed arena with a seating capacity of at least 18,000 seats located in the City of Inglewood, subject to certain conditions. If that sounds very specific, it is. The only arena that fits this description is the Intuit Dome. Even if Governor Newsom decides to sign AB 3206 into law, no more than 100 people will benefit at any one time because one of the conditions of the bill is that sales occur in an area in the arena no larger than 2,500 square feet, with a maximum capacity of 100 persons.

Some might question the constitutionality of so specific a law. In fact, Article IV, Section 16(b) of the California Constitution provides "A local or special statute is invalid in any case if a general statute can be made applicable". The legislature attempts to address this problem by finding and declaring in Section 3 of the bill that "a special statute is necessary and that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique conditions found in the City of Inglewood, relating to fair and efficient application of the alcoholic beverage control licensing laws with respect to an eligible arena".

In support of the bill, the City of Inglewood argued for its economic benefit and that the inclusion of a 2030 sunset provision evidenced its commitment to ongoing evaluation. The California Council on Alcohol Problems asserted that "AB 3206 will be the precursor to similar district bills up-and-down the state, eroding and eventually gutting the century’s long established 2 a.m. ‘last call’ statewide".