Postscript: In a Quick Turnaround, Oregon Allows Washington Self-Distribution

Less than a year ago, I spoke with Justin Leigh about a local skirmish that looked to be on a years-long slow burn. Leigh, the co-owner of Dwinell Country Ales and also a lawyer, chafed at an Oregon law he believed was illegal. Summarizing his position, I wrote: “If you own a Portland brewery and self-distribute your beer, Washington State welcomes you to drive across the Columbia River and deliver to a Vancouver pub. Oregon laws, however, forbid the reverse.”

He was an advisor to three Washington state breweries who sued Oregon to allow self-distribution into Oregon. (We also had Justin on the podcast to discuss the case.) At the time, I wrote:

“The case law here seems pretty strong to me as a layman. The US Supreme Court actually decided a case very similar to this in Granholm v. Heald back in 2005. Wine was at the center of that case, but it was nearly identical. The Court ruled ‘that laws in New York and Michigan that permitted in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers but prohibited out-of-state wineries from doing the same were unconstitutional.’”

Well, it didn’t even take a full year: we learned last week that Oregon capitulated.

Writing in a press release, Justin reported on the resolution:

Under the terms of the settlement, the OLCC has agreed to permit out-of-state beer producers the ability to self-distribute beer they manufacture to Oregon retailers. Additionally, the OLCC has agreed to not enforce the Oregon law that limits direct-to-consumer shipping privileges to permittees that hold an alcohol license in states that make similar privileges to OLCC licensees.

The Oregon legislature may formalize this ruling into law and has proposed brief house-cleaning language in the form of HB 2013. It needs to get passed out of that committee, go to the House, then get approved by the Senate before the Governor would sign it, but I can’t imagine anyone seriously getting riled up about it.

In a country that so often feels dysfunctional, this is a little shaft of sunshine illuminating how things could work.