On the face of it, who can object to the Supreme Court’s decision that permits wine consumers to buy directly from out-of-state wineries? This is just the free market at work. The state laws that prohibited the practice were nothing but a legal leftover from prohibition days and a mercantilist privilege granted to politically powerful distributors who thought only of their monopoly.
The commerce clause of the Constitution is good for nothing if not to prevent this kind of state-to-state protectionism. Right? Well, that is the impression you get from those who are toasting and celebrating and proclaiming a glorious day for wine lovers. But there is also the not-small matter of federalism.
