Supreme Court to review federal home-distilling ban

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a federal ban on distilling spirits at home, taking up a challenge to an 1868 law after two federal appeals courts reached opposite conclusions about its constitutionality. The justices granted review in Department of Justice v. McNutt, a case brought by the federal government after the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ban unconstitutional. The court’s October 16 order means the Supreme Court will consider whether Congress had authority to prohibit home distilling as part of its power to impose and collect taxes. The dispute follows April rulings that split the appellate courts. The Fifth Circuit concluded the prohibition exceeds Congress’s taxing authority. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a separate case brought by John Ream, upheld the ban as a necessary and proper way to collect federal excise taxes on distilled spirits. The challengers, including the Hobby Distillers Association and some of its members, argue that Congress cannot use its taxing power to bar people from making spirits at home. The federal government says the restriction helps prevent tax evasion by making it harder to conceal distilling...