A libertarian public-interest group has filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York that claims that New York’s state-law prohibitions of direct wine sales, including Internet sales, violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (Swedenburg v. Kelly, S.D.N.Y., No. 00CV0778, filed 2/3/00).

The suit characterizes itself as “a civil rights action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to vindicate economic liberty, consumer freedom, and freedom of speech.”