The National Association of Wine Retailers (NAWR) has submitted an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court of the United States to grant Certiorari to Sarasota Wine Market v Schmitt, a retailer wine shipping case brought to challenge Missouri’s ban on out-of-state retailers shipping to consumers in Missouri.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the Missouri ban constitutes an “essential element” of the “three-tier system” and is therefore not subject to judicial scrutiny under the Commerce Clause.
In urging the Supreme Court to grant Certiorari to the Sarasota Wine Market case, NAWR argues that the Eighth Circuit badly misunderstands the nature of the three-tier system and what constitutes its “essential elements”, as well as misstating the relationship between consumers’ rights and retailers. The amicus brief also says the Eighth Circuit failed to undertake the well-established, Supreme Court-endorsed analysis that requires the Court to evaluate state-produced, concrete evidence showing that its discriminatory law is necessary to advance the state’s interest in protecting the health and safety of its citizens and that there is no other non-discriminatory alternative to the discriminatory law.
“After 15 years of courts, wholesalers, alcohol regulators, lawmakers and other opponents of consumer access to wine arguing that the non-discrimination principle embedded in the 2005 Granholm v Heald Supreme Court decision did not apply to the retail tier, the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 (Tennessee Wine v Thomas) that the non-discrimination principle does in fact apply to retailers,” notes Tom Wark, executive director of NAWR.
“Wine retailers are urging the Supreme Court to take this important case so as not to let another decade and a half pass before reiterating that purely discriminatory bans on wine retailer interstate shipping under the guise of completely unsubstantiated health and safety concerns are unconstitutional and may not stand,” he added.