Sen Boots has introduced SB 106 concerning the sale of cold beer in grocery stores and drug stores. It would allow such sales if the beer was brewed in Indiana by a microbrewery and if the sale did not exceed 3 cases worth of beer.
I can’t imagine this will succeed, but I like it. Standing in the way – the package liquor stores who don’t want the competition on cold beer; mass produced beer companies and out-of-state microbreweries who don’t want the Indiana microbreweries to have an unfair advantage on distribution.
I like the cultivation of Indiana’s rather good craft beer industry, but, aside from my personal preferences, I can see arguments that this might not be the wisest policy in general.
Isn’t this a dormant commerce clause problem even if it passes?
I’m not sure. State already regulate commerce in alcohol so heavily, I don’t know if this one more thing, preferring as it does Indiana brewers, is Constitutionally impermissible.
Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 pretty much says the 21st Amendment doesn’t trump the dormant commerce clause. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like this is almost the same situation as that case.
Granholm v. Heald Wikipedia link for anyone who wants to read about the case.