Excellent news for internet wine sales. Doesn't directly affect us, unless there are some killer wineries in these states (unlikely).
WSJ.com - High Court Bars State Limits On Direct Shipment of Wines:
Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours.
The 5-4 decision overturns laws in New York and Michigan that make it a crime to buy wine directly from vineyards in another state. In all, 24 states have laws that bar interstate shipments.
The state bans are discriminatory and anticompetitive, the court said. “States have broad power to regulate liquor,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers.”
“If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms,” he wrote.
Justice Kennedy was joined in his opinion by Justices Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
...In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the ruling needlessly overturns long-established regulations aimed partly at protecting minors. State regulators under the 21st Amendment have clear authority to regulate alcohol as the see fit, he wrote. “The court does this nation no service by ignoring the textual commands of the Constitution and acts of Congress,” Justice Thomas wrote. He was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens.The Washington-based Institute for Justice says the 24 states that ban direct shipments from out-of-state wineries are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.
I'd also like to go on record as saying Justice Thomas is a dimwit. Are minors purchasing wine with a stolen id? If not, there is already an impediment to sale to minors. If they are using stolen id's, then what stops them from just going to a local liquor store, like everybody I knew did in high school?
