Wine sales laws and "calling the legislature's bluff"

Professor James Tanford of the Indiana University School of Law will soon be filing a federal complaint addressing what he says is unconstitutional discrimination created by Act 668 of 2007, passed by the legislature earlier this year. Its passage in March led a coalition of Arkansas alcohol distributors and package stores to nonsuit a claim they filed on the previous statute in Pulaski County Circuit Court last year.

Tanford believes this 2007 Act was an attempt by the General Assembly to ward off lawsuits and believes that the new legislation unconstitutionally allows Arkansas wineries to sell their wines directly to consumers while forcing those outside the state to distribute through licensed retailers. These very constitutional arguments were debated in the House Rules Committee during the session, and we reviewed recent federal rulings on the interpretation of statutes from other states.

Tanford told Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Daniel Nasaw that if he wins in court, the General Assembly will be forced either to open the direct shipment market to out-of-state wineries or to allow the Arkansas wineries to perish. “This is calling their bluff,” he said of his new complaint, the 2nd complaint he's filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas. Here's today's article, and here's a previous article regarding Tanford's involvement in litigation in Pennsylvania's wine sales law. For a complete listing of Tanford's involvement in direct interstate wine sales litigation in 13 other states, click here.