The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled on September 28th that the state’s ban on wine shipments from out-of-state retailers directly to consumers is unconstitutional and enjoined Michigan from enforcing the ban.
In Lebamoff Enterprises v. Snyder, Judge Arthur J. Turnow wrote:
The governing question is whether Michigan is permitted to enforce a statute that explicitly denies out-of-state retailers a privilege available to their in-state competitors. The answer at this stage must be no. Michigan cannot demonstrate that permitting in-state retailers to ship directly to consumers while denying out-of-state retailers the right to do the same is inherent to its three-tier system … when it starts carving exceptions out of that system, it must do so without resorting to economic protectionism.
Turnow concluded by requiring Michigan to either allow wine shipments based on the out-of-state retailers’ home state license or to provide out of state wine retailers with access to a Michigan permit to ship wine. The ruling means consumers will now have access to many more brands of wine to purchase online.
This article was written by Ryan Hansen, Law Clerk
