Archive for the ‘Legal Issues’ Category

Why Won’t Michigan Ask Questions About Wine Shipping?

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

It has been said that "The first step toward wisdom is asking questions". This has always made sense to me. And I'm going to suggest that the tactic be investigated by the Michigan Attorney General's office. Recently the Michigan Attorney General announced they would appeal the Michigan Federal District Court ruling ...

Michigan Federal Court Ruling on Wine Shipping Draws Attention

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

A good amount of attention is being shown in the media toward Tuesday's Michigan Federal Court decision concerning out-of-state retailer to consumer shipping in that state. As you may recall from yesterday's post at Wine Without Borders, Judge Hood in Michigan ruled Michigan's discriminatory, anti-consumer law was unconstitutional. She enjoined ...

Consumers and Free Trade Win In Michigan

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

There is no other way to describe the October 1, 2008 decision in the Michigan case of Siesta Village Market v. Granholm as anything other than a complete victory for consumers, free trade advocates and constitutionalism. Judge Donna Hood ruled that Michigan's discriminatory laws that allow Michigan wine lovers to ...

Oklahoma Wine Politics—Pain in the Neck

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

When you spend enough time watching wine politics play out, it becomes a real necessity to be able to laugh...otherwise you'll spend your time at the chiropractor from shaking your head back and forth in dismay.The wine politics playing out in Oklahoma are both hilarious as well as depressing. This November, ...

Illinois and its Payoffocracy

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Since 2005 when Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich declared it so, September is Illinois Wine Month in that state. That month is coming up and the outstanding Illinois wine industry will get some well deserved recognition. The industry has come a tremendous distance in the past 20 years producing outstanding wines ...

How Texas Wine Consumers Can Respond

Monday, July 21st, 2008

In the comment section of a the previous post on the current state of wine shipping in Texas, Josh made a simple request: "I wish you would also publish information on how consumers can fight against this kind of industry abuse. Where can we donate money? Who are the politicians in ...

The Strange Case of Texas

Friday, July 18th, 2008

For two years since Specialty Wine Retailers Association opened its lawsuit against the state of Texas challenging the constitutionality of its ban against out-of-state retailer shipping to Texans, the state has remained open to shippers. The mechanism by which consumers were still able to procure wines from out-of-state retailers was ...

Unintended Consequences

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Maybe the motto should be: "Cogitate before you legislate". This is the lesson that a number of people might want to take away from bad direct shipping legislation in California and Illinois that brought with it unintended consequences. ILLINOIS RETAILERS In the case of Illinois, that state's recent ban on out of state ...

How Illlinois Wine Lovers Lost Their Rights

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

HOW ILLINOIS WINE LOVERS GOT SCREWED In October 2007, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed HB 429 into law. Taking effect June 1, 2008, the new law prohibited Illinois consumers from buying and having shipped to them wine from out-of-state wine merchants and on-line wine stores. The new law stripped consumers of ...

Discriminating Against Imported Wines

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

It should be clear to all those that think about the impact of the various state laws meant to discriminate against retailer wine shipping that on another level these laws disproportionately hurt imported brands. In a number of states consumers may have wine shipped to them from American wineries across the ...

Ignorant or Misleading?

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport that the state of Maine may not required a common carrier (FedEX, UPS, etc) to obtain a signature from someone to whom cigarettes are being delivered. The court reasoned that such a state requirement ran afoul of ...

The Fallacy

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

"The world sees the Internet as their friend, they don’t see the danger in it. I guarantee you, if I gave my daughter a gift card or a credit card tomorrow she could order a bottle of vodka on the Internet and get it three days later. They don’t see ...

On The Wine.com Controversy

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Many readers of this blog will have already become familiar with the "Wine.com Episode" of recent weeks. How could you not be. Wine.com's concern with the legality of much shipping of wine into Washington and its subsequent in-house stings of various retailers followed up by their visit to the Washington ...

Wine Retailers Should Send the Right Message

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

While most wine retailers that offer their stock on line explain what states they will ship to, few of them explain why they won't ship to certain states. And if they explain, it is usually cursory note that shipping wine is prohibited by law in X. It would do the consumer ...

The White Paper that Justifies the Judge

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Regarding the Michigan Judge's ruling that Granholm v. Heald and the principle of non-discrimination applies to retailers as well as wineries, a white paper to this point was written by Judge Ken Starr, Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law, and Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law School. For those of you ...

Michigan Judge: “Retailers Covered by Sup. Court Decision”

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

A District Judge in Michigan last week Michigan Ruling in a case there that exactly mirrors SWRA's position on the issue of Retailer-To-Consumer shipping and the Granholm V. Heald 2005 Supreme Court decision. Since that groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling, distributors across the country, as well as some State officials, have been ...

Wine Without Borders Is Coming

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

After searching high and low for that bottle of Australian Chardonnay you tasted when last in Australia, you find it. A wine merchant located outside your state who has an eclectic taste in Chards lists it on their website. Hallelujah! Upon clicking a few times you are ready to order ...