Alaska breweries win First Amendment challenge
When Jessie Janes opened Alaska’s first hard kombucha brewery, he imagined more than just a tasting room. He envisioned a community space where Alaskans and tourists alike could gather for live entertainment, games, conversation, and locally made drinks.
Jessie opened Zip Kombucha in the heart of Anchorage after 12 years in the U.S. Army, a project that aligned with his home brewing hobby, his instinct toward entrepreneurship, and his commitment to fostering community.
But his plan was hindered by state regulation. While bars across Alaska could host live music, karaoke, games, and other entertainment without restriction, breweries and wineries like Jessie’s were treated entirely differently.
They were banned from hosting most entertainment outright, forced to apply for special permits to hold just a handful of events per year, charged fees for the privilege, and told what kinds of expression were and were not allowed inside their own businesses. Jessie wasn’t even allowed to offer bar seating.
The restrictions made little sense: By banning nearly all non-drinking activities—many of which would make breweries more family-friendly—the law leaves alcohol consumption as the establishment’s primary activity, undermining its own claimed public-safety goals.
Unwilling to accept the state’s flawed logic, Jessie filed a lawsuit with the help of Pacific Legal Foundation—and won.
Joining Jessie in the lawsuit were two other Alaska entrepreneurs who know firsthand how damaging these rules are. Like Zip, Grace Ridge Brewing and Sweetgale Meadworks & Cider House, both in Homer, rely on community engagement to survive, yet state law punished them for it.
The Superior Court for the State of Alaska didn’t mince words.
In a sweeping First Amendment ruling, the court held that Alaska’s restrictions on breweries and wineries offering live music and similar entertainment violate both the U.S. Constitution and Alaska’s own free speech guarantees.
As noted in the court’s order, the government cannot silence expression simply because it wants to favor certain businesses over others. It found that Alaska’s justifications for its restrictions “reflect an unapologetic motivation of pure protectionism”—an illegitimate state interest.
For Jessie Janes and his fellow brewery and winery owners, this ruling means they can finally use their space the way they always intended: as a place for people to gather, connect, and build community.
More broadly, the decision reaffirms the simple constitutional principle that government cannot silence speech or rig the rules to protect favored businesses. Free expression belongs to everyone, including entrepreneurs who open their doors to the public.
