Posts Categorized: Legal Challenges

The Supreme Court and Wine Shipping: Another Chance

In a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, a Florida retailer has asked the high court to overturn a lower court ruling concerning wine shipping. That ruling, from the 8th Circuit court of Appeals, claims the 21st Amendment to the Constitution allows the State of Missouri to discriminate against out-of-state… Read more »

A Better Way On Retailer Wine Shipping In Michigan

Tomorrow,  two attorneys — one representing the state of Michigan and another representing the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association — will stand in front of one of the highest courts in the land and argue that discriminatory and protectionist laws that bar Michiganders from receiving wine shipments from out-of-state wine stores ought to be… Read more »

In Wine Law, Be Careful What you DO NOT Ask For

The opening of Florida for wine shipments from out-of-state wine retailers is a story of “be careful what you DON’T ask for”. In 2005, in the wake of the Granholm v Heald Supreme Court decision, a Florida Federal District Court ruled that the state was barred from enforcing its laws that banned out-of-state shipments of… Read more »

Honesty Prevails at Supreme Court Wine Case Hearing

We saw something remarkable at the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday when oral arguments in the case of Tennessee Retailers v. Blair were held. Too often, court cases obscure the practical reasons laws are enacted, instead focusing on technical legal reasoning. That didn’t happen yesterday. More than once the advocate for the Tennessee Wine & Spirit… Read more »

The Wine Retailer Supreme Court Case is Coming

The 13-year-old Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court decision is about to be revisited, only this time with retailer wine shipping at issue. Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Tennessee Wine & Spirit Retailers v. Byrd. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its Granholm v. Heald decision that states violated… Read more »

Michigan Wine Lovers Have No Access to 89% of Wines

The increase in interstate wine shipment by wine retailers and wine stores over the past decade can be traced directly to 3 developments in the American economy: 1. A significant increase in the number and diversity of domestic and imported wine products in the U.S. marketplace 2. Increased access to information about these new and… Read more »

Challenging State Wine Laws: The Tanford Interview, Part 2

In a previous post we introduced Alex Tanford, the Indiana attorney and professor who played a key role in moving the landmark Granholm v Heald Supreme Court case to fruition and who is currently challenging discriminatory laws in three states that ban retailer to consumer shipping. In this post, Professor Tanford addresses questions concerning the… Read more »

Becoming An Advocate for Wine Lovers — The Tanford Interview, Part 1

For twenty-five years Professor Alex Tanford has, along with partner Robert Epstein, been using the state and federal court systems to address blatantly discriminatory laws the negatively impact consumers’ ability to access the wines they want. Tanford was Counsel of record in the Supreme Court case of Granholm v. Heald (2005) and in 18 related lower court cases addressing… Read more »