Alcoholism

Supreme Court to Weigh Ban on Home Distilling Spirits

Is the federal ban on home distilling basic public health protection or is it federal overreach dressed up as a tax law?

10 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

Supreme Court to Weigh Ban on Home Distilling Spirits

Story

Above: Workers collect moonshine at Casey Jones Distillery in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on Aug. 16, 2017. Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Facts

The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether a federal ban on distilling spirits at home is constitutional, taking up Department of Justice v. McNutt. Federal appeals courts had split over the roughly 160-year-old prohibition.
Breitbart
Bloomberg
Federal law makes home distilling a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. However, brewing beer at home for personal use has been legal under federal law since 1978, and so is winemaking.
NBC
The Epoch Times
Two federal appeals courts split on the issue in April, 11 days apart. The 5th Circuit ruled for members of the Texas-based Hobby Distillers Association, while the 6th Circuit upheld the ban in a case brought by an Ohio brewpub owner.
Townhall
ABC News
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court Congress restricted home distilling because a distiller can more easily conceal an operation or thwart inspections when a still sits in a dwelling, thereby evading the required tax.
The Washington Post
The Washington Examiner
Challengers argue the 1868 law exceeds Congress' authority under the Taxation and Necessary and Proper clauses, warning that there is "no limit" to a federal power to criminalize local conduct that could conceal taxable activity.
Reason Magazine
CBS News
Robert Alt, an attorney for the challengers, said they are thrilled the justices took the case, adding that the nation's founders "would be rolling over in their graves" to learn home distilling had been turned into a federal crime.
Daily Wire
BostonGlobe
AP News

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Making hard liquor at home isn't like brewing a batch of beer; a botched run can churn out methanol that blinds or kills. Commercial distillers answer to strict standards that keep toxins out of the bottle, and that oversight is the only reason store-bought spirits are reliably safe. Keeping a federal check on backyard stills amounts to basic public health protection.

Missouri Poison Center

Narrative B

Slapping a felony charge on somebody for turning corn into whiskey in a home kitchen is federal overreach, especially when home brewing beer has been legal for decades. A prohibition that stops a product from ever existing can't honestly be called a tax measure, since nothing untaxed ever gets made. Countries that legalized home distilling haven't seen the fires and disasters promised.