No municipality or county shall have power to license the sale of, or impose an excise tax upon, liquor as defined in this title, or to license the sale or distribution thereof in any manner; and any power now conferred by law on any municipality or county to license premises which may be licensed under this section, or to impose an excise tax upon liquor, or to license the sale and distribution thereof, as defined in this title, shall be suspended and shall be of no further effect: PROVIDED, That municipalities and counties shall have power to adopt police ordinances and regulations not in conflict with this title or with the regulations made by the board.
RCW 66.08.120
Preemption of field by state—Exception.
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case 89 Wash. 2d 688 - Anderson, Leech & Morse, Inc. v. Washington State Liquor Control Board (1978)
Most recently applied in City Of Seattle, Appellant/cr-respondent v. S. Michael Kunath, Respondent/cr-appellant (July 2019)
1933 ex.s. c 62 s 29; RRS s 7306-29.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.