Nina Totenberg had an excellent summary of the issues this morning on NPR's Morning Edition. Listen to it here. The description:
The Supreme Court hears a case today that will decide whether small vineyards will be allowed to sell wine over state lines. Two Constitutional provisions are in the balance: the commerce clause that prevents one state from erecting economic barriers to products from another state; and the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition and gave states broad authority to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages within their borders.Here is another NPR report to listen to, this one from yesterday's Day to Day.
Charles Lane of the Washington Post had a comprehensive article on this Sunday, titled "Small Wineries Find Ally On Interstate Shipping: But States and Wholesalers Oppose Direct Selling."
The Indiana Law Blog has been covering this issue from the beginning. Here is what looks to be the first entry, from 7/26/03.
More: 8/29/03; 9/15/03; 12/22/03; 2/12/04; 5/24/04.
See this site, self-described as "the home page for documents relating to the litigation concerning the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting the direct shipment of wine to consumers. It is maintained by James A. Tanford, one of the attorneys involved in the litigation." As noted in earlier Indiana Law Blog entries, Professor Tanford teaches at IU Law-Bloomington and represented plaintiffs-appellees in the first of these cases to be argued before a circuit court, the 7th Circuit, in Bridenbaugh v. Freeman-Wilson, 227 F.3d 848 (7th Cir. 2000) (upholding an Indiana statute restricting the direct shipment of wine on the ground that it was a permissible expression of the state’s authority under section 2 of the Twenty-first Amendment). Prof. Tanford is a counsel of record in today's U.S.S.C. arguments.
Indiana is one of 33 states signing on to a brief supporting the State of Michigan filed by 33 state attorneys general. (Available here via Prof. Tanford's site).
See this Findlaw.com site (scroll down to Dec. 7th) for all the documents in these three intersatate wine cases: Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor of Michigan, et al. v. Eleanor Heald, et al.; Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Ass'n v. Eleanor Heald, et al.; and Juanita Swedenburg, et al. v. Edward D. Kelly, Chairman, New York Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control, State Liquor Auth., et al.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at December 7, 2004 12:35 PM