A U.S. appeals court on Friday declared unconstitutional a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the nonprofit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members.
They argued that people should be free to distill spirits at home, whether as a hobby or for personal consumption including, in one instance, to create an apple-pie-vodka recipe.
The ban was part of a law passed during Reconstruction in July 1868, in part to thwart liquor tax evasion, and subjected violators to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
I mean this article is about an American court over turning an American law…so yes, we’re talking about American regulation.
And bad news for us, there is very little consumer protection out there. There is a lot of financial reason to not make horribly dangerous products (America is a pretty litigious nation), but I think you are drastically overestimating the amount of testing and protection that happens by any regulating body.
We can’t even keep illegal drugs from coming in on shipping containers using our normal ports, in what world is a regulatory body inspecting every piece of electronics and every lithium battery that comes into the country. It’s why so many knock offs and faulty devices have issues so often. Just browse Amazon or EBay (not even getting into Alibaba) for 15 minutes and you’ll find cheaply made, never inspected devices all over the place.
And that isn’t even getting into the stuff that is well built, but only if you follow the proper instructions, why do you think we have to have national wide campaigns every thanksgiving just to try and keep people from burning their houses down while deep frying a turkey?
Then there are the tons of hobbies and activities that are just dangerous, we don’t stop anyone from free climbing a mountain or jumping a gorge on a motorcycle, cause once again, it’s not the governments job to keep individuals safe from themselves, not really. The job of government is to keep society safe from individuals, to keep you safe from others, to stop them from interfering with your rights (and it’s debatable how much they even really do that sadly).
But as far as Uncle Sam is concerned, you want to try and slack line across a 100 foot fall, or make home made booze, or eat rare chicken (at home) that’s your choice.