I'm opening up my still again!

Nobody makes sour mash whisky like myself and my sidekick "Blue". Want to go blind, throw down a few shots of this sheet.

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

Ground News

April 14, 2026

The ruling says the 1868 law exceeded Congress’s taxing power and could not stand as written.

• The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling unconstitutional, ruling it an improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.

• Enacted during Reconstruction in July 1868 to thwart liquor tax evasion, the law carried penalties of up to five years in prison, prompting the Hobby Distillers Association to challenge the ban.

• Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones wrote that the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing production, warning the government's logic could allow Congress to criminalize any in-home activity and violate the Constitution.

• Andrew Grossman, who argued the nonprofit's appeal, called the ruling "an important victory for individual liberty," as the decision upheld a July 2024 ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas.

• Pending potential government appeals, the court put the ruling on hold, while the Justice Department and the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau have not yet responded to the decision.