Oregon Could Be Catalyst for Modernizing Beer, Wine and Spirits Regulations

State appears to give in on Beer Self-Distribution Lawsuit

It looks like the state of Oregon is making the right decision. And if it is making the right decision, this could lead to upwards of two dozen states partially killing off their three-tier system.

Last year, a group of Washington wineries sued the state of Oregon, arguing that the state discriminated against out-of-state breweries by giving Oregon breweries the right to self-distribute is beer directly to Oregon retailers, but barring out-of-state breweries the right to do the same thing

No one argued that this wasn’t a case of Oregon law discriminating against out-of-state businesses. The question was did the 21st Amendment give Oregon the power to pass discriminatory laws that would, if the product in question wasn’t alcohol, be a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause?

This conundrum should sound familiar to folks familiar with the legal battles surrounding direct-to-consumer shipping of wine. Near exact circumstances existed in New York and Michigan in the early 2000s when those states allowed their own wineries to ship wine directly to their consumers but barred out-of-state consumers from doing the same. The result was the Granholm v Heald Supreme Court case in which the high court held a state could not discriminate in such a fashion unless it showed they were advancing a legitimate state interest that could not be achieved without discriminating. The Supreme Court ruled there were numerous non-discriminatory alternatives and found the New York and Michigan laws unconstitutional. What followed was a process of numerous other states that had similarly discriminatory laws on the books changing their laws to allow shipments of wine from out-of-state wineries.