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Steve Forbes has it exactly right: America’s patchwork of liquor laws is a disgrace to the free market and a mess for consumers and small businesses alike. Conservatives who believe in individual liberty and economic common sense should be leading the charge to sweep away these protectionist relics.
For decades the nation has tolerated a bewildering thicket of state and local rules—some places even run state-owned liquor stores—while consumers pay the price in higher prices, fewer choices, and less competition. The Constitution’s commerce clause was meant to stop this sort of state-by-state economic Balkanization; instead, we have 21st-century trade barriers inside a single country.
The legal fights brewing around cases like Day v. Henry make clear who’s profiting from the status quo: powerful wholesalers, state liquor boards, and entrenched interests who treat regulation as a business model. Appellate courts have been split over whether in-state presence requirements unlawfully discriminate against out-of-state sellers, leaving Americans caught between judges and protectionist middlemen.
That circuit split is exactly why this issue belongs at the Supreme Court and why conservatives should welcome clarity that restores the commerce clause and consumer choice. Industry groups representing independent retailers rightly warn that the patchwork is choking competition and that the high court needs to step in to stop states from raising walls against their neighbors’ businesses.
Policymakers and judges should embrace straightforward reforms: end state monopolies where they exist, allow responsible interstate shipping, and strip needless regulations that protect cartels more than they protect the public. Let technology and entrepreneurs modernize distribution so hardworking store owners and American consumers—not well-connected middlemen—reap the gains.
This isn’t some niche regulatory gripe; it’s a fight over whether America remains a single, free market or a federation of fiefdoms run by regulators and cronies. Patriots who believe in liberty, prosperity, and accountable government should demand an end to these absurd barriers and cheer any court or legislator bold enough to restore common-sense commerce for the American people.
