The Twenty-First Amendment
Supreme Court Case Law Relating to Alcohol Regulation
In a series of interpretive decisions rendered shortly after ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment, the Court established the proposition that States are free to adopt legislation discriminating against imported intoxicating liquors in favor of those of domestic origin and that such discrimination offends neither the Commerce Clause of Article I nor the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, in State Board of Equalization v. Young’s Market Co. (1936), a California statute was upheld which exacted a $500 annual license fee for the privilege of importing beer from other States and a $750 fee for the…
