On June 5th, Ohio notified the Sixth Circuit that it has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, appealing the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Block v. Canepa, which held that Ohio’s discriminatory wine retailer shipping law and alcohol importation restriction laws as unconstitutional. It further requested that the filing of the cert petition stay the Sixth Circuit’s mandate which deemed the laws unconstitutional.

The Ohio Petition for Cert filing is significant because it represents the first acknowledgement to SCOTUS that there is a circuit split in results and is the first cert petition in the wine retailer shipping cases brought forth by a state attorney general. Why are these two factors significant? Because the Court refused to grant a cert petition in a distinct split in legal methodology in the recent Day v. Henry filing, and the filing party, a state attorney general’s office, increases the chance that cert will be granted as opposed to if a private party filed.

There were some pundits that believed a petition for rehearing at the Sixth Circuit would be the most likely route, however, Ohio skipped this step and filed directly with the Supreme Court.

What may be puzzling is that the State previously filed a Motion to Stay the Mandate on May 14, 2026, and indicated to the Sixth Circuit that Ohio would file a cert petition around August 4th.

So why the early filing, as Ohio had two extra months remaining on filing its SCOTUS cert petition deadline, it may be surprising to many that Ohio did not take advantage of all the time allocated for the filing.

I can only speculate here because I am not involved on the state side, but the state wanted the case to be reviewed by the present group of SCOTUS clerks who have a major influence on whether cert is granted or rumors of Justice retirements could have influenced the state’s prompt action.

Whatever the motivation, Ohio decided that it could not be an outlier and have an unconstitutional wine retailer shipping law. But the major question is whether SCOTUS can live with the new checkerboard created, where it would allow an environment where an out-of-state retailer can ship into Ohio but cannot ship into North Carolina?

Only time will tell, but matters are coming to a head!