« Ind. Decisions - "Library loses a round in Court of Appeals" | Main | Courts - "Computer virus shuts down Houston municipal courts" »

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Ind. Law - 6th Circuit wine shipping ruling boosts home delivery

Another great "Uncorked" column on wine shipping today by Dan and Krista Stockman of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. It begins:

There has not been much good news lately for wine lovers in Indiana who would like to have wine shipped directly to their homes. But on Christmas Eve came the glimmer of a possibility.

On Dec. 24, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Kentucky’s state law that required you to go to the winery in person before you could have wine shipped to your house.

Why is that a big deal, since this is not Kentucky?

It matters because in August the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Indiana’s face-to-face requirement. That means there are conflicting opinions from two appeals courts, making it much more likely the U.S. Supreme Court will step in and make a decision.

There had always been the possibility of one of the cases being appealed to the Supreme Court, but there was no guarantee the court would hear the case. Now, that chance is much improved.

Here are links to ILB entries on the 6th Circuit and 7th Circuit opinions.

More from today's column:

The whole debate began in 2005, when the Supreme Court said state laws that let in-state wineries ship directly to buyers but prohibit out-of-state wineries from doing so are unconstitutional.

Indiana’s law prohibited out-of-state direct shipments and vaguely hinted that in-state shipments might be illegal, too, but state regulators had allowed in-state shipments for decades. After the decision, however, state officials suddenly claimed all shipping was illegal.

Several attempts to change the law, a few court cases and an appeal have brought us to where we are today: The Hoosier State allows most wineries, in and out of state, to ship directly to Indiana customers, if the winery gets a permit and there is a face-to-face transaction with the customer first. So if you want to order a bottle of hard-to-find pinot noir from Oregon, you have to go there first and the winery has to decide it’s worth getting a permit and dealing with another state’s paperwork and rules.

The appellate judges who upheld Indiana’s law seemed to have emptied a few bottles before they made their decision. They claimed that because West Coast wineries are closer together than those in Indiana, the law does not discriminate against out-of-state wineries because the cost for travel to wineries could be lower. [Emphasis added by ILB] * * *

In the Kentucky case, the court rightly said forcing consumers to travel to the winery first discriminates against out-of-state wineries and gives in-state wineries an unfair advantage. It also noted that it gives Kentucky’s wholesalers an unfair advantage, which particularly pleased us because it is the wholesalers that have fought against wine lovers’ interests the hardest in all of these cases.

Today's column concludes:
Bloomington’s Dr. Allen Dale Olson, who started the group VinSense (www.vinsense.org) to lobby for common-sense wine laws, points out that not only is there no guarantee the Supreme Court will take up the matter, but there is no way to know how it will rule on the question, especially because the makeup of the court has changed since the 2005 decision.

“I don’t know where these two new guys stand,” Olson said. “And who knows what the composition of the court will be when this comes around.”

There’s also little chance of Indiana changing its law in the meantime, as legislative leaders have said they will not consider any alcohol bills this session. That’s not entirely bad news because getting a bill through the General Assembly is dicey.

The legislators that claim to be pro-small business, pro-family business, pro-agritourism and pro-farm suddenly forget all about that when the liquor lobby trots out its tired, red-herring argument that direct shipping will increase minors’ access to alcohol. We’re sure that sudden about-face never has anything to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars the $34 billion-a-year wholesaling industry makes in political contributions each year. Nothing at all.

Here is a list of all ILB entries on wine shipping.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 7, 2009 09:14 AM
Posted to Indiana Law