Supreme Court to Review Reconstruction-Era Ban on Home Distilling
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a more than 150-year-old federal law, enacted during the Reconstruction era, that bans distilling spirits in private homes. Plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of this prohibition.
Rochester, NY, October 19, 2026 —
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a federal law dating back more than 150 years that bans distilling spirits in private homes. The law was enacted during the Reconstruction era, and plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the prohibition.
The case puts the constitutionality of the home-distilling ban before the nation’s highest court. The available information does not identify the plaintiffs, the name of the law, the specific constitutional arguments they have raised or the grounds on which the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
It also does not provide a date for the court’s decision to take up the dispute, a schedule for arguments or a projected timeline for a ruling. No details are available about the lower-court proceedings or the positions of the parties defending the law.
The court’s agreement to review the challenge does not, by itself, resolve whether the prohibition is constitutional. The information provided does not indicate how the justices will rule or whether the case could affect other laws. Until the court issues a decision, the available account establishes only that the justices will consider the challenge and that the law at issue bars distilling spirits in private homes.
The dispute concerns a federal prohibition enacted more than a century and a half ago, but further details about the case and its possible scope were not provided.
Story summarized from the original created by MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press on www.rochesterfirst.com, see more information here.
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