Brews Your Can Use

A California man has sued the Lost Coast Brewery in Humboldt, claiming that a label on its Indica India Pale Ale offends him and Hindus worldwide.

The label shows elephant-headed Ganesh, god of wisdom and remover of obstacles, holding a beer in one of his four hands, and another in his trunk.

Dhir seeks at least $25,000 and his lawsuit mentions that $1 billion would be appropriate to compensate Hindus around the world.

Link.

Man, insulting the elephant-headed Ganesh. What was that beer company thinkin'?

By the way, don't be fooled by the $25,000 figure. It's probably a jurisdictional amount, meaning he had to plead that figure at a minimum in order to gain access to a particular type of California court. He's probably seeking damages greatly in excess of $25,000.

We were a little surprised that there could be a legal cause of action for such a thing, but it appears that the lawsuit is based on "hate crime." Most crimes have civil counterparts: the criminal murderer can be civilly liable for wrongful death, for instance, and the thief can be liable for conversion. If California has a hate crime statute (and we strongly suspect it does), there's probably a civil counterpart that allows such bogus suits. Yet another reason not to pass hate crime legislation.