21st Amendment Enforcement Act is alive and well

In what may be a first in recent memory, the Ohio AG Dave Yost is utilizing the Twenty-first Amendment Enforcement Act to file a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop certain retailers from shipping wine and spirits into the state.

The specific retailers named in the injunction were: Wine.Com, Inc., U.S. Beverage Advertising Corp (Reserve Bar)., Pacific Wine & Spirits, LLC (Pacific Wine and Spirits), ShakeStir (Cocktail Courier), LLC, Winc, Inc., Houdini, Inc (Wine Country Gift Baskets)., and AWS Hopkins, LLC (Ace Spirits).

Under the Twenty-first Amendment Enforcement Act, a state attorney general may bring a civil action in federal
court to enjoin violations of state laws regarding the transportation and importation of intoxicating
liquor.

An employee of the Ohio Division of Liquor Control ordered product which according to the court filing was shipped and delivered to an address which happens to be the Enforcement Division’s headquarters. Additionally, the AG’s office and the Division of Liquor Control utilized common carrier wine shipping reports from 2019 as further evidence of shipping to Ohio consumers.

The AG goes onto claim that these companies committed an illegal act under Ohio law, which bans out-of-state wine retailer shipping and the shipping of spirits, and that an injunction needs to be issued against these companies to stop these illegal activities.

More to come in a subsequent post.