DJL Rest. Corp. v. City of New York

In DJL Rest. Corp. v. City of New York, 96 N.Y.2d 91 [2001], the Court considered a local law that created a zoning requirement for adult establishments in New York City (id. at 93). Owners of several of the affected adult establishments claimed that the local law was preempted by the Alcohol Beverage Control Law, which governed their business operations because they served alcohol on their premises (id.). But the Court held that the local law was not specifically regulating alcohol consumption (id. at 97). While there was no dispute that the Alcohol Beverage Control Law preempted the field of regulation over the plaintiffs' establishments, the local law applied across the board to all adult establishments, regardless of whether they sold alcohol (id.). Because the local law was found to be directed at addressing a separate and distinct problem, its impact on the state law was found to be merely incidental (id.)