Supreme Court takes up home-distilling ban and lets NLRB member's firing stand

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the federal government can keep banning people from distilling spirits at home, and it turned away a challenge to President Donald Trump's firing of a National Labor Relations Board member.

Home distilling

The justices granted the Justice Department's appeal in Department of Justice v. McNutt, according to the court's order list.

The ban dates to the 1860s, and appeals courts have split over it, according to a case summary by the law firm Dorsey & Whitney. The Fifth Circuit struck the law down, while the Sixth Circuit upheld it. The question is whether the ban is a necessary and proper way for Congress to carry out its power to collect taxes.

Wilcox firing stands

The court denied review in Wilcox v. Trump, with no noted dissent. Gwynne Wilcox, reappointed to the NLRB by President Joe Biden in 2023, challenged her removal.

A federal judge sided with Wilcox in March 2025, but the D.C. Circuit reversed that ruling 2-1 in December, Reuters reported. In June, the Supreme Court upheld Trump's firing of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter and overturned its 1935 Humphrey's Executor precedent, which had let Congress shield some agency officials from removal.

Also on the list

Source: Supreme Court order list, Oct. 19

The Montgomery County case asks whether challengers to a race-neutral admissions policy must show the targeted group was harmed overall. It involves a magnet middle school lottery in Maryland that a group says disadvantages Asian American students, according to Dorsey & Whitney.