5th Circuit Strikes Down Home Distilling Ban

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a 158-year-old prohibition on distilling alcoholic spirits at home is unconstitutional, striking down a Reconstruction-era law that criminalized the practice to prevent tax evasion.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a lower court decision, siding with the Hobby Distillers Association and four of its members who challenged the ban. The ruling, written by Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones, found that the law exceeds Congress's authority under the Constitution's taxing and necessary and proper clauses. The statutes in question, part of the Internal Revenue Code, barred distilleries in homes, yards or connected structures and carried penalties of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The ban originated in July 1868, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, when Congress imposed excise taxes on distilled spirits and tobacco to raise revenue. Officials from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and the Department of Justice defended the prohibition, arguing it was essential to stop evasion by making home operations harder to conceal. The court rejected this rationale, stating that the law...