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Betting on Supreme Court outcome is high stakes poker
Published: 2004-12-13
 Betting on Supreme Court outcome is high stakes poker
Modern Brewery Age, Dec 13, 2004 by Mark H. Rodman
Law students, topflight lawyers and the most responsible of journalists learn early that it's high-stakes poker to cogitate the direction the Supreme Court leans based merely on the justices' questions or comments in oral argument, even though their clerks have digested the briefs and advised on what facts and precedents are weighty and what other good arguments are beyond the pale.
Ignoring that wisdom, I raise my bet on a terribly disappointing outcome by noting that profoundly intriguing is Mr. Justice Scalia's comment to the states' rights defenders that tips us off that he at least wonders if the trial courts' record contains enough uncontroverted facts and "material [that] sustains your burden".
What "burden", I ask, did the wholesaler and state advocates have to meet. I ask because typically a presumption of constitutionality exists when legislation is contested. But no question about the burden of overcoming that presumption was posed by any justice to the direct-shippers.
Hence, I suggest there're not only 3 or 4 alternatives for the court, but there's likelihood of a "dead-heat" outcome, which few if any have mentioned. It is the Court may choose a compromise, which recognizes the Court has two other states' rights cases before it and so finesses a plausibly politically seditious conservative versus liberal confrontation over greater expansion of a supreme federal power versus so-called states rights.
Following Mr. Justice Scalia's lead, the Court just might refine the circle of proofs needed that need to be established before a state has a safe harbor in which to regulate under the aegis of the 21st Amendment in areas Congress has not.
Under this alternative, the Court disappoints and confuses everyone and throws the whole kit and caboodle mess back to the state legislatures. If this occurs, the result is Michigan case affirmed, and New York case reversed, but nothing more profound, as yet. Of course such a ruling would come with a love note from the Court that, if it chooses, Congress could solve the dilemma too and unify what are now Balkanized rules of the alcohol road.
Indeed, the direct shippers pre-argument PR and court house steps news conference strongly hint Bolick, Starr, Sullivan et al have just such foresight and are keenly aware this might happen and so are inviting Congress to help them and middle aged wine drinkers who news film on Sunday and Monday nights showed lamenting that their individual rights were infringed when a state "tells me what I can drink."
Anyone out there willing to call or raise?
Mark H. Rodman is the principal of Beverage Distribution Consultants of Swampscott, MA. Those desirous of calling or raising can contact Mr. Rodman via email at Beer007@comcast.net.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Business Journals, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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Betting the house on poker
Published: 2004-11-08
 Betting the house on poker
Drug Store News, Nov 8, 2004
Retailers are gambling on poker-inspired products to be the 'it' gift this holiday season. Next month, Walgreens is launching a full endcap of World Poker Tour-licensed products. Other retailers are running clip-strip promotions in snack and beverage aisles. CVS is featuring WPT-licensed products inline--a smart move being as WPT products led the toys/games/playing card category to a 30 percent rise over the year-ago period, according to point-of-sales data provided by the U.S. Playing Card Co., an exclusive licensee of WPT-branded cards, chips and poker sets.
The love affair with poker is expected to continue at least through mid2006. Currently, 100 million people in the United States play, and 5 million tune in weekly to "The World Poker Tour" on the Travel Channel, which elevated poker to a spectator sport and where viewership has doubled since the show first aired in March 2003, according to a show spokesman.
If Bravo's "Celebrity Poker" added star power to the game, ESPN's "The Worm Series of Poker" helped grow popularity. Nielsen Media Research found that ESPN's poker viewers largely are men (76.5 percent) and have a median income of $62,115 and a median age of 43.4 years. While retailers already are looking at Father's Day tie-ins, the U.S. Playing Card Co., predicts single-deck cards will be a hot stocking stuffer at $3.49. "The 2003 World Series of Poker" two-disc DVD for $34.95 also could be a holiday hit.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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