A Texas judge gives a nod to America’s at-home distillers

For over a century it has been illegal to make spirits at home in America. In December the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think-tank representing hobbyists bent on making bourbon in backyards, challenged the ban in court. It argued that the government’s prohibition amounted to overreach. The government’s lawyers insisted that the federal powers to tax and regulate interstate commerce justified it. On July 10th a Trump-appointed judge in Fort Worth, Texas, declared the law unconstitutional, saying the defence “miss[ed] the maker’s mark”.