Stephen Miller and Max Kaplan discuss how the 21st Amendment took center stage recently at the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices considered whether the amendment provided an exception to the dormant commerce clause, which disfavors state interference in interstate commerce. Specifically, the court examined a Tennessee law that prohibited issuing liquor licenses to anyone who had not lived in the state for at least two years. Despite this discrimination against nonresidents of Tennessee, a trade association in Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Blair asked the Supreme Court to hold that the law did not violate the dormant commerce clause because of the special status afforded to state regulation of alcohol sales by the 21st Amendment.
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