Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed its opening brief on appeal in Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. John Ream of Licking County, Ohio, represented by The Buckeye Institute, is challenging the federal government’s ban on the home distilling of spirit beverages, arguing that this ban exceeds Congressional authority under Article I of the U.S. Constitution and violates the Tenth Amendment.

“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,” said Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute and a partner in BakerHostetler’s Washington, D.C., office, who is a lead attorney on the case. “Fortunately, the Sixth Circuit’s own precedent allows Mr. Ream to challenge this unconstitutional law without opening himself up to prosecution.” 

Before they were married, John Ream’s wife Kristin gave him a home brewing kit as a gift. After experimenting with brewing at home for nearly 10 years, Mr. Ream turned his hobby into his own American Dream. The Reams opened Trek Brewing Company in Newark, Ohio. Since 2017, this family-owned business has grown into a community-gathering place that, through the Trek Community Fund, actively supports local organizations that make the area a better place to live. Now, Mr. Ream would like to try distilling small quantities of alcohol in his own home for his own personal consumption. However, the federal government threatens Mr. Ream with years in federal prison and thousands of dollars in fines if he were to pursue that activity.

“According to novelist William Faulkner, there was no such thing as a bad whiskey; some whiskies are just better than others. 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,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, who is also a lead attorney on the case. “And 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.”

Read more about The Buckeye Institute’s case and stay up-to-date on its progress at: BuckeyeInstitute.org/ReamvUSTreasury.

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