When I served as Chief Legal Counsel of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, our team toured Southern Wine & Spirits and met with its leadership. Governor Rauner had directed agencies to cut red tape, with a goal of reducing regulations by 15%.
Southern’s leadership politely commended the effort, then made their position clear: the […]
I had the privilege of contributing to Blake Gray’s piece on the impact of the Supreme Court denying cert in the Ohio case. With a Michigan decision coming to a contrary result in the same circuit we are left with a mess. This article explains what the result could be.
Union City, Ohio, and Union City, Indiana, sit across the state line from one another, with residents living just feet apart. Although these neighboring communities are similar in character, their residents face vastly different opportunities to purchase wine.
Union City, Indiana, falls within the Seventh Circuit, where Indiana’s wine retailer shipping restrictions were upheld as constitutional. […]
Another great piece by Blake Gray on the Supreme denying cert in Wilson v. Miller, the state of Ohio’s appeal to a 6th Circuit decision finding its discriminatory wine retailer shipping law unconstitutional.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/10/supreme-court-hands-wine-a-pyrrhic-victory
I am proud to contribute my knowledge and appreciate the shout out about my White Sox, now if we can only get […]
On Friday, the Supreme Court will meet in conference and decide whether to grant cert in Wilson v. Miller. Ohio is asking the Court to review the Sixth Circuit’s decision holding that Ohio’s discriminatory wine retailer shipping law is unconstitutional. In a rare turn, the state and the retailer plaintiffs agree on one thing: the […]
The Seventh Circuit heard arguments on September 17th in Freehan v. Berg, the challenge to Illinois’s wine retailer shipping law. Illinois lets in-state retailers ship wine to Illinois residents but denies that privilege to out-of-state retailers.
The most important dynamic in the case may be a trap Judge Easterbrook set for himself. In Chicago Wine Co. […]
For full disclosure, I am co-counsel on this case with Gillian Garrett, an outstanding attorney from the Bay Area.
California wanted to dismiss a Commerce Clause challenge to a discriminatory law, which allows its own wineries to sell direct to retailer but denies this same privilege to out-of-state wineries.
In Blue Sky Vineyard, LLC v. Tupy […]
In Chicago, a corrupt mayor never goes to jail — it’s always some low-level schmuck who goes to prison. It is difficult not to develop a cynicism that the federal government harpoons the minnows while letting the dirty whale swim by.
I had the same thought when I learned about the federal government’s settlement with the […]
In no other industry could you pass a law requiring a seller to be paid within 30 days, while leaving the product they bought upstream with no timely-payment requirement at all. Yet that’s exactly the arrangement the three-tier system protects: a wholesaler sells to a retailer, who is legally required to pay within […]
In a rarity in Washington these days, bipartisan legislation has been introduced to address one of the fastest-growing sectors in consumer products: hemp-derived cannabinoids. Introduced by Representatives Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the Lawful Hemp Protection Act would establish a federal regulatory framework for low-THC hemp products, replacing the patchwork of state laws […]