The Docket: Wine and–elections?: seventh circuit use voter ID law in wine shipping case
Posted by: CCommers in News
On, August 7, 2008 the Seventh Circuit decided Baude v. Heath, Nos 07-3323 and 07-3338, found constitutional a law requiring consumers to visit a winery in person to verify age and other information before that winery could ship wine to the consumer directly.
The Court used Indiana’s voter ID law, which requires voters to have a state or federal-issued ID in order to vote in person as the basis for its decision.
The Plaintiffs filed suit claiming the state law violated the Commerce Clause by placing higher costs on out-of-state wine because it is more expensive to travel to wineries outside of Indiana. They, along with others filing amici curiae briefs, also argued that verifying a recipient’s age when the wine delivery is sufficient to prevent minors from accessing alcohol.
The Defendant, Chairman of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, defended the law as a way to prevent minors from gaining access to wine. The Plaintiffs countered the Defendant’s argument, stating minors will still find ways to get wine regardless of the law.
Indiana Code §§ 7.1-3-26-6(4) and 7.1-3-26-9(1)(A) have requirements for both the consumers and the winery. The consumer must go to a winery, provide their name, address, age, phone number and sign a statement that the purchase is for personal use. Only after the requirements are fulfilled can wine be shipped directly to the consumer. The consumer also cannot receive more than 24 cases per winery per year. Wineries have to obtain a license and pay Indiana taxes. The law applies to all wineries inside and outside Indiana.
In its analysis, the Seventh Circuit stated the law was constitutional because the traveling costs in visiting wineries outside of Indiana are negligible when consumers visit multiple wineries during a trip; yet the Court admitted Indiana’s 41 wineries are spread out across the state, as opposed to other state’s wine regions, where multiple wineries are in a condensed area. The court also dismissed the Plaintiff’s claim that verifying the age of a consumer when the shipment was delivered was sufficient. It cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transportation Association, 128 S.Ct.989 (2008), which held states cannot require delivery carriers to verify the age of the recipient.
Along with the Rowe ruling, the court provided possible scenarios where a wineries’ age verification process was significantly more stringent than that of a delivery company. The court also dismissed the Plaintiff’s argument that there should not be a law since it will not prevent every minor from accessing wine. It found that while a law will not be effective 100 percent of the time, reducing underage drinking by any degree is a sufficient reason for implementing the law.
My thoughts: Allowing direct wine shipments is a step in the right direction for Indiana. Before this law no wine could be shipped into Indiana. I wonder however if wineries outside Indiana will go through all of the law’s requirements in order to ship wine to a small segment of the Hoosier population. Hoosier wine drinkers could become unable to get their favorite wines because the wineries simply do not want to deal with the law’s requirements.
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