I've placed New York state's Supreme Court brief here: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/ny.alcohol.1104.pdf --- http://news.com.com/Prohibition+redux/2010-1071-5442340.html Prohibition redux? November 8, 2004, 4:00 AM PT By Declan McCullagh The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in a lawsuit that will, if successful, permit American adults to freely buy beer and wine over the Internet. It's slightly bizarre to think that it takes the nation's highest court to guarantee online shoppers the right to order a case of fine Merlot or Pinot Noir from California. You can thank a crowd of pusillanimous state legislators for that. Dozens of state legislatures, including those of New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, and Michigan, have slapped severe restrictions on out-of-state shipments of alcohol. The culprits behind these rules: Lobbyists for beer and wine distributors, which currently enjoy profitable markups in the 25 percent range that they stand to lose if direct Internet shipping becomes legal and popular. While this unfortunate situation may pad the bank accounts of distributors represented by the influential Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, it amounts to a tax on Internet shoppers. No local distributor has the warehouse space to stock products from more than a fraction of the thousands of wineries and breweries that are online--which means that aficionados of a rare brew or a less-advertised vintage are likely out of luck today. The Web site of the Kendall-Jackson winery, for instance, flatly refuses to ship to prohibitionist states. [...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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