WSWA spins the Court Ruling

[Bucko]

Not really, KC. They fall under some such nonsense in law as dicta. It isn't law, but may lead to it if someone wants to push the issue.

This is from a lawyer friend of mine in LA (you may know him as Bruce L):

It's important to understand that in a long opinion (73 pages, with dissent), the Court is likely to throw out a lot of commentary on side issues. The reciprocity discussion you mentioned WAS NOT part of the actual holding, and it arguably WAS NOT required by the Court to reach its holding.

In legalese, it's what lawyers refer to as "dicta." In regular-speech, it means that the comments don't necessarily go to the heart of the decision, and thus do not necessarily bind future courts.

In other words, the Court did NOT rule that reciprocal laws on wine sales were unconstitutional.

And Jackie, unfortunately I hear Michigan is already moving to stop intrastate shipping to protect against interstate shipping. Politicians do irresponsible things, eh?