A Federal Court Just Ruled the Home Distilling Ban Unconstitutional (Here's What Actually Changed)
Update, November 3, 2026: The Supreme Court agreed on October 19, 2026 to hear the government's appeal ( Department of Justice v. McNutt , No. 26-204), so the petition this post describes is no longer pending. We've also corrected this post. An earlier version said the federal ban "has been struck down" in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. That overstated it: the ruling protects the named plaintiffs and the Hobby Distillers Association's members through a court injunction, and binds federal courts in those states as precedent. It did not make home distilling legal there. For where things stand now, see The Supreme Court Will Hear a Challenge to the Federal Home-Distilling Ban . Six months ago, almost to the day, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling that every home distiller should know about — and that almost nobody's explaining correctly. On April 10, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided McNutt v. U.S. Departme...