QUESTION: Notwithstanding Granholm v. Heald, does the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution overrides its Commerce Clause and allows States to discriminate against out-of-state businesses in the sale of alcoholic beverages? This is the question that the Specialty Wine Retailers Association (for which I serve as Executive Director) is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to decide. A Writ of Certiorari ( filed last week and downloadable here) asks the court to review a decision by the Fifth…

Washington State Initiative 1100 appears to have been defeated by a small margin. This is the initiative that would have reformed the Washington State alcohol regulatory system, getting the state out of the business of selling spirits, allowing self distribution for all forms of alcohol and reforming many of the restrictive laws that favored wholesalers. What's clear is that the three-tier system is responsible for defeating the Washington State effort to reform the three tier system. According to the Seattle…