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FREDERICK JELOVSEK (07-5443); S.L. THOMAS FAMILY WINERY, INC. dba Thomas Family Winery; MARTIN REDDISH (07-5524), Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PHIL BREDESEN, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Tennessee; PAUL SUMMERS, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Tennessee; SHARI ELKS, in her official capacity as Executive Director, Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Defendants - Appellees, WINE AND SPIRITS WHOLESALERS OF TENNESSEE, Intervening Defendant - Appellee. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.
Nos. 05-00181; 06-00149—Curtis L. Collier, Chief District Judge.
Argued: April 29, 2008
Decided and Filed: October 24, 2008
Before: NORRIS, GIBBONS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.
ALAN E. NORRIS, Circuit Judge. These consolidated cases ask the question whether Tennessee laws governing the wine industry violate the dormant commerce clause of the Constitution. This is one of several lawsuits filed across the country after the Supreme Court invalidated wine-related laws in Michigan and New York which allowed only in-state wineries to sell and ship wine directly to consumers. Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005).
The plaintiffs-appellants include Tennessee residents Frederick Jelovsek and Martin Reddish, individual oenophiles who would like better access to wine produced outside of Tennessee, and a winery based in the state of Indiana, S.L. Thomas Family Winery, Inc., which would like to sell directly to Tennessee residents. Plaintiffs sued the Governor, Attorney General, and Executive Director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, in their official capacities. In addition, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Tennessee (“WSWT”) successfully intervened as a defendant. For convenience sake, as the Court did in Granholm, the appellants will collectively be referred to as “the wineries,” unless distinguishing them is appropriate, and the appellees will be referred to as “the state.”
The district court granted defendants’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings. Jelovsek v. Bresden, 482 F. Supp. 2d 1013, 1023 (E.D. Tenn. 2007).1 The district court concluded that since both in- and out-of-state wineries are prohibited from selling and shipping wine directly to Tennessee consumers, this case is distinguishable from Granholm. The invalidated laws in Granholm denied only out-of-state wineries the ability to ship to consumers, a disparate treatment that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.
We agree with the district court that the Tennessee shipping restrictions are distinguishable from those struck down in Granholm and affirm the district court’s judgment as to the Tennessee ban on the direct shipment of alcohol to consumers, including wine. However, the wineries make a broader challenge to the Tennessee regulatory scheme for alcohol, specifically wine. As discussed below, we conclude that certain other challenged laws are discriminatory on their face, and thus vacate the district court judgment as to those laws, and remand for further proceedings.
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JOHN DAVID KUEHNE, JR., Defendant-Appellant. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Ohio at Dayton.
No. 03-00063—Thomas M. Rose, District Judge.
Argued: March 13, 2008
Decided and Filed: October 24, 2008
Before: CLAY and McKEAGUE, Circuit Judges; BOYKO, District Judge.
CLAY, Circuit Judge. Defendant, John David Kuehne (“Kuehne”), appeals his conviction for one count of conspiracy to steal firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; two counts of aiding and abetting the theft of firearms from a firearms dealer in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(u), 2 and 924(i); three counts of possessing stolen firearms in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(j) and 924(a)(2); three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(a)(2); and three counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Kuehne raises a number challenges to his conviction. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM Kuehne’s conviction.