BLOOMBERG LAW · 2026-11-10 09:30 UTC

Supreme Court Home Distiller Tax Case Poised for a Ripple Effect

The Supreme Court has granted cert in Department of Justice v. McNutt, which asks how far Congress may go to make federal taxes easy to collect. Scott McNutt and co-parties, members of the Hobby Distillers Association in Texas, are willing to pay the federal distilled spirits excise tax but challenge Section 5601(a)(6), a five-year felony for having a home still. The Fifth Circuit held the ban unconstitutional as not a necessary and proper incident of the taxing power, while the Sixth Circuit in Ream upheld it, creating a circuit split.

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