About this episode

The episode discusses recent court rulings on home distilling and vaccine mandates, highlighting constitutional issues and circuit splits.

John Wrench of IJ details the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the federal ban on home distilling is unconstitutional. At least as the case was argued, which included the taxing power and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but not the Commerce Clause. Then, IJ’s Joe Gay discusses a Fourth Circuit case where the parents of a West Virginia student who attended a virtual school challenged the program’s vaccine mandate. The case raises interesting religious liberty and rational basis issues. And stay until the end for some “where are they now” updates. But before you listen: MEGA UPDATE! Between the recording of this episode (April 20, 2026) and its release (May 1) the Sixth Circuit dropped its opinion on the same issue as the Fifth Circuit. In contrast to the Fifth, the Sixth concluded Congress’s taxing power does allow it to ban home distilling. (On this episode we speculate about what the Sixth Circuit was going to do. Feel free to laugh at our predictions.) The circuits are split! Or, one might even say, shorted. McNutt v. US DOJ Perry v. Marteney Ream v. US DOJ (6th Cir. ruling)

People in this episode

Guests: John Wrench, Joe Gay

Topics covered

• home distilling
• vaccine mandate
• religious liberty
• Fifth Circuit ruling
• Sixth Circuit ruling
• taxing power
• Necessary and Proper Clause

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Justice, US DOJ, West Virginia

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