I’m going to post a quick summary, and follow up later with interesting tidbits from Judge Sparks’ ruling. But in the interest of getting information out there quickly, the Judge has ruled Sec. 108.01(a)(4) of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment. . Additionally, he has ruled Texas Administrative Code Title 16, Sec 45.77, 45.79(f), 45.90, & 45.110(c)(3) unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment.
What does this mean in layman’s terms? 3 things:
- TABC cannot prohibit you from telling customers or advertising where they can buy your products
- TABC cannot require you to label your products by their definition of “beer” and “ale”
- TABC cannot prohibit you from advertising the strength of your products by prohibiting words like “strong”, “prewar strength”, “full strength”, etc
Like I said, be back later with more details. You can play the home game and read the full judgment here.
