# Alcohol content and S.C.O.T.U.S

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 18, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836 "2003-11-18T03:35:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836/1 "2003-11-18T03:35:28Z")

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Some years back there was going to be a case going before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding brewers being allowed to post alcohol content on their product labels. Damned if I can remember the outcome of that. But seeing quite a few beers have the content on their label I can guess who won.

Does anyone have any CITES to the decision?

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**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836/2 "2003-11-18T03:53:30Z")

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Hey, hey! I found the [answer](http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-1631.ZS.html)!

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836/3 "2003-11-18T04:06:11Z")

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This prohibition always puzzled me. Canadian beers have displayed the alcohol content for years. I find it helpful to decide which beers I want to buy, since I favour light beers. Knowing exactly what the brewer means by “lite” is helpful consumer info - and I’ve never heard of “strength wars” up here, so I’m dubious of the purported basis for the US law.

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**Author:** ![Stan\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@Stan\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Doubt)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836/4 "2003-11-18T04:55:55Z")

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**This prohibition always puzzled me. Canadian beers have displayed the alcohol content for years. I find it helpful to decide which beers I want to buy, since I favour light beers. Knowing exactly what the brewer means by “lite” is helpful consumer info - and I’ve never heard of “strength wars” up here, so I’m dubious of the purported basis for the US law.**

In the U.S., the light/lite designation almost always refers to the caloric content of a beer, not it’s alcohol content.

For example, Miller lite has more alcohol than Guinness Extra Stout, which few people would consider a “light” beer.

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**Author:** ![Lynne\_kilii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lynne\_kilii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynne_kilii)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-content-and-s-c-o-t-u-s/213836/5 "2003-11-18T20:23:12Z")

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I heard somewhere (which may be at the level of echoing quacks afaik) that all a light/lite beer had to do t be called light/lite was be light in color.