The Honk-N-Holler Grocery store, where the light-beer was sold.
The Burger Court (1975-1981). Seated, from left to right: Justices Byron R. White and William J. Brennan, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, and Justices Potter Stewart and Thurgood Marshall. Standing, from left to right: Justices William H. Rehnquist, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and John Paul Stevens
Fred Gilbert (criminal defense attorney who argued for Oklahoma), Carolyn Whitener (co-plaintiff and owner of Honk-N-Holler convenience store)
Justice Ginsburg (who argued the case), Curtis Craig (college student and co-plaintiff, now president of Explorer Pipeline Co.).
Craig v. Boren (1976) involved a sex-based classification that treated men worse than it did women. Oklahoma law prohibited the sale of “nonintoxicating” 3.2 percent beer to males under the age of 21. But women could buy the light beer at the age of 18. The state argued that young women were less likely to drive drunk and get into traffic accidents. Therefore, the sex-based classification was related to a legitimate state interest: the improvement of traffic safety on Oklahoma roads.
The Supreme Court rejected this argument. Justice Brennan wrote the majority opinion.