US EditionUS appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional
The ruling said the 1868 law exceeded Congress’s taxing power and left home distillers facing penalties of up to 5 years in prison.
- The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling unconstitutional, ruling it an improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.
- Enacted during Reconstruction in July 1868 to thwart liquor tax evasion, the law carried penalties of up to five years in prison, prompting the Hobby Distillers Association to challenge the ban.
- Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones wrote that the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing production, warning the government's logic could allow Congress to criminalize any in-home activity and violate the Constitution.
- Andrew Grossman, who argued the nonprofit's appeal, called the ruling "an important victory for individual liberty," as the decision upheld a July 2024 ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas.
- Pending potential government appeals, the court put the ruling on hold, while the Justice Department and the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau have not yet responded to the decision.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Federal Law Banning Home Alcohol Distilleries
Home distilling. (NA) Yesterday, in McNutt v. US Department of Justice, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down an 1868 federal law banning home alcohol distilleries. The court ruled that the law exceeded Congress' authority under the taxing power, and also under the Necessary and Proper Clause. It's an important win for constitutional federalism - as well as for home alcohol distillers! But it's significance is limited by th…
In the USA, private liquor is on fire? So far, this has resulted in a delicate fine or even a prison sentence. Now, a court ruled that the ban was inadmissible.
They sued for a recipe for apple pie vodka – and overturned an age-old distillation ban. A US dish gives a club of hobby distillers the right to make spirits at home.
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