Alabama Homebrewer Arrested

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Not to meniton that I wouldn't publish pictures of myself violating the law unless I was wanting to get busted so I could try to challange the law in court or something.

Exactly. For example, my Dad is hobby fisherman in SW FL and fishes in the gulf for personal consumption (not a commercial fisherman). He's on some online fishing forums, and has seen people get busted by FWC who post pics of their catch and have fish that are either out of season or undersized.

I personally think those laws should apply to commercial fisherman only, not individuals (they can't find where 5M barrels of oil went, but can tell the population of each species of fish?). But, it is still the law, and until changed, you are asking for trouble if you post pictures of you breaking the law.
 
HOLD ON ONE SECOND HERE:
The main issue I am seeing here is thatFederal Law supersedes all state laws as every individual state is part of the federal government. That's just how the system works:
If a state law is in conflict with a federal law, the federal law overpowers the state law. In this instance, when Carter made it legal to homebrew in the United States of America, any law that previously stated that it was illegal was made null and void.

This is basic knowledge of government workings here. So, with that in mind, this man is 100% innocent of his "crimes" in homebrewing beer.

If he had in fact distilled, however, he could face penalties as distilling is indeed illegal. For that, as stupid as it is, he is guilty all be it on THAT CHARGE ALONE and not in any way, shape, or form of homebrewing.

This needs to be seriously examined more closely...

Stupid Alabama old prickface sherrif in that picture needs to get his clock cleaned for turning something relatively harmless into a massacre of RIGHTS of the US Citizen.
 
HOLD ON ONE SECOND HERE:
The main issue I am seeing here is thatFederal Law supersedes all state laws as every individual state is part of the federal government. That's just how the system works:
If a state law is in conflict with a federal law, the federal law overpowers the state law.

I suppose it all depends on your interpretation of the 10th amendment.
 
I suppose it all depends on your interpretation of the 10th amendment.

Constitutional Law is absolutely first, followed by Federal law, then state, and finally local laws..

*edit* ah. gotcha. im not gonna make a new post to respond to your next one. that'd just be silly.
 
First things first:
Just because you don't like a law doesn't mean its not the law. All those jackasses trying to justify stealing music via P2P downloading are a prime example. If you don't like it, get it changed. Until you do, you are a criminal.
Second:
Just because a guy signs up for military duty and somehow gets shipped off to somewhere does not absolve him of crimes he might commit when he gets back.
Finally:
You don't know the circumstances surrounding this so it would be wise to refrain from judgement of the perp or the law. Period.
 
Here is where the law stands in Alabama on homebrewing alcohol.
You are allowed to make 5 gallons of wine a year if you own property that sells fruit commercially. PERIOD.
But, Federal law does supercede states law. Look at all of the cases in California where DEA (part of the federal gov) agents bust legal marijuana grow operations or medical "distributors". This is perfectly legal by California state law. But it is superceded by the DEA's federal law.
Even if the ethanol was for farm equipment, it is still a distilled spirit. If they can prove he distilled it, he is still guilty on that charge. Otherwise, he should fight untill it goes to a national court and win because of what I just stated.
 
Right, which is what I'm getting at.

Just to clarify, federal law was changed to eliminate taxation on homebrew for personal use. It doesn't say homebrewing is legal in every state in the union... it leaves that up to the states. From homebrewersassociation.org:

The 21st Amendment predominantly leaves regulation of alcohol to the states. Thus, even though homebrewing is federally legal, it is still up to individual states to legalize homebrewing in state codes. The vast majority of states have legalized homebrewing, though laws regarding homebrewing vary widely.
 
Just to clarify, federal law was changed to eliminate taxation on homebrew for personal use. It doesn't say homebrewing is legal in every state in the union... it leaves that up to the states. From homebrewersassociation.org:

well that takes care of that.
 
Let me offer some clarification on this subject. Those of us in the homebrewing circles in Alabama have been following this closely for a while. We've been hesitant to say much until we found out more facts about the case. First, homebrewing of beer is a felony in the state of Alabama. In some ways, the fact that it is a felony is a protection since law enforcement is going to be somewhat reticent in sending an otherwise upstanding citizen to jail for a relatively harmless crime. So, we (the group behind the homebrew legalization effort) have been trying to decide what position to take on this situation:
1) If distillation is really involved, it poses a major problem to our legalization efforts since some of our opponents are trying to associate homebrewing with moonshining. In this case, we would need (at an organizational level) to distance ourselves from this guy and assure the powers that be that he is in no way representative of the rest of us. (I am speaking only of the organizational level and not of our personal feelings about the guy and the individual desire to support him.)
2) If there is no distillation involved, he could potentially serve as a cause celebre in our legalization efforts. After all, what elected representative wants to see a guy who has faithfully served our country in two tours in Iraq thrown in jail just for enjoying a hobby that is legal in 48 of the 50 states?

Now, some additional facts: (These should be considered hearsay for legal purposes. I have them from someone who has spoken directly to Kade, the person in question.)
1) Kade has rightly been advised by his lawyer to keep quiet since the prosecution has a right to use anything he says. As such, you won't see any direct statements from him showing up in public forums. This is the major reason that there is little clarity on the issue.
2) Kade has been a longtime resident of Blount County, and there are longstanding feuds between some of the families there. It has been alleged that one of his neighbors that had a grudge against him reported to the cops that he was manufacturing meth. In the course of visiting his property, the cops supposedly spotted his brewing equipment through the window and got a warrant to raid his house.
3) There was a small still on his property along with a quantity of ethanol. Kade said that he has not distilled any liquor and the ethanol they found was given to him by someone else. In fact, he was intending to experiment with converting his farm equipment over to run off of ethanol.

thanks for the update i am interested on how this will turn out
 
Im sorry if Im wrong but ( I know i dont I all the facts)or even ( strait ) Didnt President Jimmy Carter(1977ish) make It legal to home brew for personal use .
Isn't Alabama part of the deal?

No; the legalization of homebrewing by the federal government doesn't supersede state & local laws in any way. Google up the repeal of the 18th Amendment and Local Option. There are still parts of this country where prohibition is by no means dead, and there are those elements who would love to see the return of it to the whole nation. There are New Drys, for example. And then there are the places where alcohol is legal, but under the control of some idiot state monopoly, like PA.

And please, no grousing about this; if you live in a dry area, or where homebrewing is prohibited, then organize to get the laws repealed. But that IS reality, at this point.
 
A free man breaks the laws he does not agree with.

And won't be a free man very long with that attitude.

Best to work to change a law you don't agree with, then outright breaking in a flagrant disregard for legal process. Not agreeing with a law does not make you exempt from it.
 
homebrewing of beer is a felony in the state of Alabama
I live in Georgia, and people here don't understand why the Deep South is regarded by the rest of the country as regressive, undereducated, and backwoods.
This kind of thing is one of the reasons. I am amazed that something like that could be a felony.
I absolutely would never live in that state for that reason alone.
 
And won't be a free man very long with that attitude.

Best to work to change a law you don't agree with, then outright breaking in a flagrant disregard for legal process. Not agreeing with a law does not make you exempt from it.

Thank you. Now watch Cool Hand Luke, and if "Valcarde: is willing to accept the outcomes, then proceed.
 
homebrewing of beer is a felony in the state of Alabama
I live in Georgia, and people here don't understand why the Deep South is regarded by the rest of the country as regressive, undereducated, and backwoods.
This kind of thing is one of the reasons. I am amazed that something like that could be a felony.
I absolutely would never live in that state for that reason alone.

I completely agree. Unfortunately, I live in the other neighboring state where things also aren't very progressive.
 
I completely agree. Unfortunately, I live in the other neighboring state where things also aren't very progressive.

I really love the South, and no state is perfect. I hope AL and MS can get a grip and move into the 21st century soon. GA only recently allowed beers above 5 or 6% to be sold. If I didn't have about a case or two waiting to chill and forgot to buy some today, I'd be sheet out of luck if I tried to get a six pack tomorrow.
Crazy laws like that need to be repealed. For states like us, AL, PA, OK, and MS, they really need to dump everything but the 21 year old restriction, and start over.
Unfortunately, the distributors have us over a barrel, and they won't let go of their monopoly easily.
People have to get off their butts and introduce some common sense back into laws.
 
I really love the South, and no state is perfect. I hope AL and MS can get a grip and move into the 21st century soon. GA only recently allowed beers above 5 or 6% to be sold. If I didn't have about a case or two waiting to chill and forgot to buy some today, I'd be sheet out of luck if I tried to get a six pack tomorrow.
Crazy laws like that need to be repealed. For states like us, AL, PA, OK, and MS, they really need to dump everything but the 21 year old restriction, and start over.
Unfortunately, the distributors have us over a barrel, and they won't let go of their monopoly easily.
People have to get off their butts and introduce some common sense back into laws.

I grew up all over the country. I moved to MS from CA and at first I hated this place, but now I have learned to love this place and call it home. It was only a few years ago were we allowed to buy on sunday, and then a year or so after that we were allowed to buy it cold. We just need a change and unfortunately, religion plays a huge factor in everything down here, so I don't expect change over night.

Heck, in a town about an hour and a half north of here, the city was trying to pass a law to allow beer and light wine sales. It didn't pass and from what I could tell from the news, it didn't pass because of religious views. I think the vote failed by like 15 votes out of almost 3,000 voters. :eek:
 
Starderup: I just moved my family to Atlanta from NY and I made sure to check that homebrewing was legal here before making my decision. As for the blue laws, not all Northern states are much better: before '06 in NY, you couldn't buy beer on Sundays before noon and you still can't buy wine or liquor before noon on Sundays. Also, liquor stores used to be prohibited from opening on Sunday which recently changed (although they must still close one day out of the week.) There are no wine sales at any stores other than liquor stores, so you couldn't pick up the wine for your meal at the same store where you buy the food for it.

I do agree that we should be rid of all these blue laws and I have gotten caught up in the no Sunday alcohol sales a couple of times in the 2 months we have been here. In fact we changed our grocery shopping day from Sunday to Saturday for this reason...

I certainly hope that these last couple of states get their priorities straight and legalize homebrewing. It is really sad that someone who served our country like that gets treated in such a way.
 
nothing there looks like it would be distilled. To people that know nothing about brewing, the vessels with airlocks look like something wrong, but really as a home brewer all i see is an ******* surrounded by brewing equipment.

love it!!
 
My personal favorite part of the picture is the rifle scopes. Trying to make it look as if they were confescated with the equipment as if he was protecting his illegal shadetree brewery with firearms. That sherriff, and that picture, is what's wrong with America. *********.
 
I grew up all over the country. I moved to MS from CA and at first I hated this place, but now I have learned to love this place and call it home. It was only a few years ago were we allowed to buy on sunday, and then a year or so after that we were allowed to buy it cold. We just need a change and unfortunately, religion plays a huge factor in everything down here, so I don't expect change over night.

Heck, in a town about an hour and a half north of here, the city was trying to pass a law to allow beer and light wine sales. It didn't pass and from what I could tell from the news, it didn't pass because of religious views. I think the vote failed by like 15 votes out of almost 3,000 voters. :eek:

I thought it was the bible thumpers down here, but found out the real bottleneck is the lock the distributors have on the system. At least here, they are perpetuating the problem. The religious folks don't help, but they aren't the principal issue.
 
My personal favorite part of the picture is the rifle scopes. Trying to make it look as if they were confescated with the equipment as if he was protecting his illegal shadetree brewery with firearms. That sherriff, and that picture, is what's wrong with America. *********.

I thought those were refractometers!
 
Starderup: I just moved my family to Atlanta from NY and I made sure to check that homebrewing was legal here before making my decision. As for the blue laws, not all Northern states are much better: before '06 in NY, you couldn't buy beer on Sundays before noon and you still can't buy wine or liquor before noon on Sundays. Also, liquor stores used to be prohibited from opening on Sunday which recently changed (although they must still close one day out of the week.) There are no wine sales at any stores other than liquor stores, so you couldn't pick up the wine for your meal at the same store where you buy the food for it.

I do agree that we should be rid of all these blue laws and I have gotten caught up in the no Sunday alcohol sales a couple of times in the 2 months we have been here. In fact we changed our grocery shopping day from Sunday to Saturday for this reason...

I certainly hope that these last couple of states get their priorities straight and legalize homebrewing. It is really sad that someone who served our country like that gets treated in such a way.

Yeah, when I lived in Massachusetts, Sunday sales were not allowed, until someone figured out that everyone was going over the state line to NH, and they were losing tons of revenue. They amended the law to allow stores within 15 miles or so of the state line to open up on Sunday. I think since then, they relaxed their laws further, but I left in 1995, so I'm not positive.
 
He should have been arrested. Do you see the size of the blingman kettle, and his fermentor is just over half full. Hack.:)
 
My personal favorite part of the picture is the rifle scopes.

Actually, it looks like those are rifles, but the picture cut them off. Still, it's dumb for them to put them in the picture as if they're connected to his homebrewing. "You can have my conical when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

Wonder if it's an election year for sheriff in that county.
 
Sheriff should never be an elected post!

The problem with it being an appointed post is that the sheriff then has to police the county official or counsel that appoints him. Major conflict there. "Look the other way on our embezzlement and we'll make sure have a nice long career as sheriff..."
 
But maybe only 4 or 8 year career, and not nice and long. Plus the inividual is appointed by whomever and perhaps approved by the council. So 9 or 11 or however many elected people have looked at his/her qualifications. As opposed to no-one.
 
Just to clarify, federal law was changed to eliminate taxation on homebrew for personal use. It doesn't say homebrewing is legal in every state in the union... it leaves that up to the states. From homebrewersassociation.org:

Exactly, it simply says it's not a federal violation and allows the states to set their own laws relevant to this issue. :mug:
 
Its a slippery slope when we pick and choose the laws we want to follow and the ones we don't.

Hardly. Slippery slope arguments are one of the most over-used logical fallacies I've encountered. Were people who willingly flaunted laws against interracial marriage taking the first step on a slippery slope? Of course not. They simply understood that a person is under no obligation to follow an unjust law.

Rational individuals are perfectly capable of distinguishing just laws/norms that demonstrably benefit society from unjust, idiotic, or downright asinine pieces of legislation.
 
Hardly. Slippery slope arguments are one of the most over-used logical fallacies I've encountered. Were people who willingly flaunted laws against interracial marriage taking the first step on a slippery slope? Of course not. They simply understood that a person is under no obligation to follow an unjust law.

Rational individuals are perfectly capable of distinguishing just laws/norms that demonstrably benefit society from unjust, idiotic, or downright asinine pieces of legislation.

There is one area where the slippery slope argument does make sense...free speech.

In most cases, however, it has no place.
 
Yeah, when I lived in Massachusetts, Sunday sales were not allowed, until someone figured out that everyone was going over the state line to NH, and they were losing tons of revenue. They amended the law to allow stores within 15 miles or so of the state line to open up on Sunday. I think since then, they relaxed their laws further, but I left in 1995, so I'm not positive.

Tax free NH, land of cheap booze has been giving neighboring states fits for years. Maine built a state liquor store in Kittery, next to the border and lowered the prices to the NH level... but only in that store! Everywhere else Mainers had to pay inflated prices. All to prevent people from crossing the border for their booze. In Vermont, liquor control agents would sit on the border with binoculars trained on the NH liquor store... and stop customers as they crossed the border, confiscating their purchases.

And those wily Granite Staters.... always seeking more revenue, built rest areas on the turnpikes that included restrooms, vending machines and a fully stocked state liquor store.
 
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