Deep Ellum and Grapevine breweries challenged a Texas law prohibiting packaging breweries from selling off site.
Judge Robert Putman, the same federal judge who ruled for Walmart against Texas, ruled the breweries failed to prove the state hadn’t any rational basis for prohibiting packaging breweries from selling off site.
Indeed, he said, there were several reasons why the state laws were reasonable.
- The state has an interest in defending the three-tier system. “It is rational for the state to limit the retail sales of the Brewers as a method to preserve the three-tier system.”
- Public health concerns were also a rational basis for the state law.
- “The legislature may have been concerned about disrupting the beer retail market by allowing brewers and manufacturers to make additional retail sales.”