The Newark Advocate first published this article.

The Buckeye Institute is appealing a district court’s ruling to dismiss a Newark brewer’s case to overturn a home-distilling ban.

In the appeal, attorneys representing John Ream, owner of Trek Brewing in Newark, maintained claims that he satisfies constitutional requirements to challenge a federal home-distilling ban. In January 2024, Ream sued the Treasury Department, seeking to overturn a ban on home distilling of alcohol for personal use.

Ream’s attorneys in the appeal also requested an oral argument, feeling it could question the constitutionality of the ban and show that it can affect people in different ways. They filed arguments in the appeal June 22 after notifying the court it would do so April 8.

In its ruling, the court granted the Treasury Department’s motion to dismiss the case, stating that Ream lacks an “injury in fact,” meaning an infringement of a legally protected interest that is “concrete” and not “hypothetical.” Ream’s attorneys argued that his “injury” is his inability to distill at home because of the ban.

The court also stated that Ream has failed to show the government would persecute him if he distilled at home and that he doesn’t have a constitutional interest to do so.

“The district court’s ruling denies Mr. Ream the ability to vindicate his constitutional rights without risking criminal liability by actually violating the home-distilling ban,” Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute and a partner in BakerHostetler’s Washington office, said in a news release. “Fortunately, the Sixth Circuit’s own precedent allows Mr. Ream to challenge this unconstitutional law without opening himself up to prosecution.”

The appeal is the latest development in the case, which Ream’s attorneys filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and has been ongoing since January 2024. Ream is interested in trying home distilling but won’t violate the ban that prevents him from doing so, his attorneys have said in previous statements.

Federal law prohibits people from producing distilled spirits at their home. There are several reasons for this, one of which includes preventing tax evasion. It also can be dangerous to do so because it involves mixing materials that require considerable care. 

People face penalties of up to five years in prison and fine up to $10,000 if they violate the ban.

Ream’s attorneys have called the ban unconstitutional, saying it’s not within Congress’s taxing power, making it inappropriate to execute a federal tax on distilled spirits, among other arguments.

Attorneys representing the treasury secretary in court documents said Ream hasn’t reasonably alleged that an inability to distill at home is causing or will cause him any harm.

“Unlike whiskey, there is such a thing as a bad law, and the federal government’s ban on home distilling is just that — a bad and unconstitutional law,” Buckeye Institute President and CEO Robert Alt said in the release. “The remedy for this bad law is the U.S. Constitution, which does not grant Congress the power to criminalize distilling in one’s own home for personal consumption.”

Ream lives in Granville and opened Trek Brewing with his wife, Kristin, around 2017. The brewery in February added golf simulators at the facility to better use its event space.