Columbus, OH – The Buckeye Institute prevailed in its efforts to overturn the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on home distilling. Friday’s blockbuster decision in McNutt v. U.S. Department of Justice from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the federal home-distilling ban is unconstitutional and exceeds Congress’s authority under both the taxing power and the Necessary and Proper Clause.

“This decision is an important victory for individual liberty and the principle that the federal government is one of limited powers. As the court explained, if the federal government could ban home distilling, then it could ban practically any home-based activity. That kind of overweening federal power would have been anathema to the authors of our Constitution,” said Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute and a partner in BakerHostetler’s Washington, D.C., office, who presented Buckeye’s oral argument and is an attorney on the case. “Scott McNutt, Rick Morris, Thomas Cowdrey, John Prince, and other members of the Hobby Distillers Association are now free to pursue their passion to distill fine beverages in their homes. I look forward to sampling their output.”

McNutt is a companion to The Buckeye Institute’s other home-distilling case, Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury, which is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and—importantly—challenges the authority of Congress to ban home-distilling under the Commerce Clause as well.

“Raise a glass to freedom! The Fifth Circuit correctly recognized that Congress is indeed a body of limited and enumerated powers, and prohibiting hobby distilling in your own home is not among them,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and an attorney on both the McNutt and Ream cases.

Plaintiffs Rick Morris, Scott McNutt, John Prince, and Thomas Cowdrey are members of the Hobby Distillers Association, an organization that advocates for at-home hobby distilling. Morris, who founded the organization, is a whiskey enthusiast, certified Bourbon steward, and owner of a company that manufactures stills. The others have experience with distilling and seek to pursue it as a hobby in their own homes, which federal law had previously criminalized.

To learn more about McNutt v. U.S. Department of Justice, visit: BuckeyeInstitute.org/McNuttvDOJ. To learn more about Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury or to stay up to date on that related case, visit: BuckeyeInstitute.org/ReamvUSTreasury.

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