Weekly column: Supreme Court to take up Net-wine sales case

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I've placed New York state's Supreme Court brief here:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/ny.alcohol.1104.pdf

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http://news.com.com/Prohibition+redux/2010-1071-5442340.html

Prohibition redux?
November 8, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in a lawsuit that 
will, if successful, permit American adults to freely buy beer and wine 
over the Internet.

It's slightly bizarre to think that it takes the nation's highest court 
to guarantee online shoppers the right to order a case of fine Merlot or 
Pinot Noir from California. You can thank a crowd of pusillanimous state 
legislators for that.

Dozens of state legislatures, including those of New York, Pennsylvania, 
Florida, Maryland, and Michigan, have slapped severe restrictions on 
out-of-state shipments of alcohol. The culprits behind these rules: 
Lobbyists for beer and wine distributors, which currently enjoy 
profitable markups in the 25 percent range that they stand to lose if 
direct Internet shipping becomes legal and popular.

While this unfortunate situation may pad the bank accounts of 
distributors represented by the influential Wine and Spirits Wholesalers 
of America, it amounts to a tax on Internet shoppers.

No local distributor has the warehouse space to stock products from more 
than a fraction of the thousands of wineries and breweries that are 
online--which means that aficionados of a rare brew or a less-advertised 
vintage are likely out of luck today. The Web site of the 
Kendall-Jackson winery, for instance, flatly refuses to ship to 
prohibitionist states.

[...]
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