Supreme Court strikes down out-of-state wine ban

I seem to be on an alcohol theme today. The Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette has a story entitled Ban on out-of-state wine shipments unconstitutional.

According to the article:

The 5-4 decision overturns laws in New York and Michigan, which supporters said were aimed at protecting local wineries and limiting underage drinkers from purchasing wine without showing proof of age. In all, 24 states have laws barring interstate shipments. The court said the state bans are discriminatory and anticompetitive. “States have broad power to regulate liquor,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers.”

“If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms,” he wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

The Supreme Court opinion is available here (pdf document). The case name is Granholm v. Heald