I received this from Nick Dranius today:
Jon and Kim Hamilton of White Winter Winery in Iron River, Wis. want to tell you that they sell mead for direct shipment to your door. But White Winter and other wineries can't tell you about their shipping services because the state of Minnesota forbids it.
The Hamiltons have the legal right to directly sell and ship mead to consumers, but the state of Minnesota bans them from talking about such sales in advertisements, solicitations and over the Internet. The Hamiltons are prohibited from buying a newspaper advertisement saying White Winter mead is available for direct shipping. They cannot legally buy radio or television time promoting direct shipping. They are barred from handing out brochures or sending postcard solicitations for direct shipping, even to longtime customers on their mailing lists. And they may not use the Internet to accept online orders; instead, the Hamiltons are forced to disregard online orders and limit business to orders received by telephone, fax, mail or in person.
Read the article here: http://www.ij.org/first_amendment/mn_wine_speech/backgrounder.html
Get *MAD* people. This is a heinous violation of First Amendment rights, and a direct slap at the wine/mead industry, while supporting the liquor lobby.
If you live in Minnesota, call *and* write your congress critter. And if you don't, write anyway. That this could be allowed to happen is so very wrong, and It. Must. Be. Stopped.
Vicky - heading off to notify Julia and everyone else I can think of.
Jon and Kim Hamilton of White Winter Winery in Iron River, Wis. want to tell you that they sell mead for direct shipment to your door. But White Winter and other wineries can't tell you about their shipping services because the state of Minnesota forbids it.
The Hamiltons have the legal right to directly sell and ship mead to consumers, but the state of Minnesota bans them from talking about such sales in advertisements, solicitations and over the Internet. The Hamiltons are prohibited from buying a newspaper advertisement saying White Winter mead is available for direct shipping. They cannot legally buy radio or television time promoting direct shipping. They are barred from handing out brochures or sending postcard solicitations for direct shipping, even to longtime customers on their mailing lists. And they may not use the Internet to accept online orders; instead, the Hamiltons are forced to disregard online orders and limit business to orders received by telephone, fax, mail or in person.
Read the article here: http://www.ij.org/first_amendment/mn_wine_speech/backgrounder.html
Get *MAD* people. This is a heinous violation of First Amendment rights, and a direct slap at the wine/mead industry, while supporting the liquor lobby.
If you live in Minnesota, call *and* write your congress critter. And if you don't, write anyway. That this could be allowed to happen is so very wrong, and It. Must. Be. Stopped.
Vicky - heading off to notify Julia and everyone else I can think of.