Will the Prohibition Law Hold Up?
As Washington prepares for a total ban on alcohol, legal experts and brewers prepare to challenge the statute's limits on interstate commerce and advertising.
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While Washington is prepared to accept the prohibition law which is effective January first, and obey it in spirit and letter, several legal points covering its operations will have to be settled in court before the law works smoothly in all its phases. The advertising clause is one of these questions. The statute makes it illegal to advertise liquor in this state, or to advertise places outside the state where liquor may be got by mail order. This clause is of doubtful legality, as it is uncertain whether publications printed outside this state can be barred from this state if they contain liquor advertising. Such a rule would be most extreme, as hundreds of standard publications carry liquor advertising. If these cannot be barred, the publishers of this state may claim that it is discriminatory to prohibit them also from printing liquor advertising. There is also a question at law whether the clause limiting the amount of liquor which a citizen can import from outside the state is in accord with the constitution of the United States. In California a recent decision holds that a state cannot abridge interstate commerce. The brewers of the state expect to carry into the federal court that feature of the law which prohibits the manufacture of liquor in this state.
“This clause is of doubtful legality, as it is uncertain whether publications printed outside this state can be barred from this state if they contain liquor advertising.”
Long before national Prohibition in 1920, Washington state voters passed their own dry law in 1915, sparking immediate constitutional battles over the scope of state power. Today, these early arguments regarding interstate commerce and corporate regulation remain the foundational precedents for how states navigate federal vs. state authority.
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