The day for New Jersey’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control bureaucrats to sober up has arrived. On Jan. 16, Gov. Phil Murphy finally signed legislation ending ABC’s attempt to impose ruinous restrictions on craft breweries authorized nowhere in New Jersey law.

Back in 2019, ABC issued a “Special Ruling” laying out multiple new rules and restrictions for craft breweries and their taprooms. For example, the special ruling strictly limited the number of “special events” breweries could host and the size and number of televisions breweries could install. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ABC held off on enforcing the restrictions until the summer of 2022.

The special ruling limited craft breweries to 25 special events a year. ABC defined a “special event” as anything advertised outside the four walls of a brewery — trivia night, open mics, televised sports playoff games, etc. These event limitations were particularly damaging to New Jersey’s burgeoning craft brewers. Most craft brewers cannot rely solely on distribution through bars, restaurants and liquor stores, so they focus on making their taprooms as inviting as possible. Perhaps then it shouldn’t have been too surprising those same bars, restaurants and liquor stores urged ABC to adopt the 2019 Special Ruling. They used the strong arm of the government to stifle competition.

Speaking of competition, as recently as 2012, there were fewer than 10 breweries in all of New Jersey. Only with the enactment of a 2012 law authorizing small breweries to operate did the industry begin to grow. As of 2019, around 130 breweries were up and running. Compared to neighboring Pennsylvania with its nearly 500 craft breweries, New Jersey has a long way to go before its breweries are any kind of competitive threat to other liquor providers.

In any event, that 2012 law was the supposed basis for ABC’s onerous regulations. The law as drafted by the New Jersey Legislature gave craft breweries space to grow. That didn’t mean they were unregulated, there were common restrictions like the barrels brewed and how the craft brewers can serve food. But ABC took that mildly crafted law and made it extra spicy. It adopted a multitude of detailed rules limiting a whole host of brewery activities. That’s why Clarksboro-based Death of the Fox Brewing Co. filed a lawsuit represented by my firm, Pacific Legal Foundation. We argued that New Jersey’s Administrative Procedure Act protects against attempts by overstepping agencies like ABC to create law without legislative authority.

Death of the Fox’s lawsuit was filed in September 2022, and had been awaiting a hearing since May 2023. With Murphy’s signature on this new bill, and ABC’s withdrawal of its onerous rules, Death of the Fox dismissed its lawsuit Feb. 7.

Just as ABC announced and issued its unlawful rules in 2019 via press release, so did it withdraw them last month. This is not how law is made and is no way to regulate a burgeoning industry. Nor should it take one brave small business like Death of the Fox to sue to prevent such government misbehavior.

Despite breweries consistently sounding the alarm with lawmakers and the administration in Trenton, despite Death of the Fox’s lawsuit, despite lawmakers twice passing unanimous legislation making clear ABC’s rules were invalid, and even despite the governor himself voicing support for breweries, ABC did nothing until the governor forced it to withdraw its rules by signing legislation.

Unfortunately, due to the end of the lawsuit, ABC will no longer be required to account for its lawless and damaging actions — at least through this case. While the agency’s attempt to answer for its actions during the litigation were, at best, disingenuous, it is again up to the governor and Legislature to keep ABC in check. And aside from the recent legislation, nothing suggests any real accounting is in the offing.

Alas, now is not the time to cry in Garden Staters’ newly freed beer. Instead, for the breweries that survived the ordeal the time has finally arrived to raise a glass of New Jersey craft beer in celebration of freedom and comeuppance for New Jersey’s unelected booze regulators.

Caleb Trotter is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm.