While the Supreme Court deliberates over the interstate wine shipment cases argued in December, Northwest Airlines has joined wine connoisseurs and Alexander Payne fans in hoping for a favorable ruling. According to today's Detroit Free Press, the airline is fighting with the state of Michigan (one of the defendants before the Supreme Court) over its ability to supply its aircraft with alcohol purchased out-of-state:

Karen Wilson, chief executive at Central Distributors of Beer in Romulus, said her company notified the Liquor Control Commission after some of her salespeople noticed pallets of beer bearing a Minnesota distributor's name were delivered to Northwest at Metro Airport. Central Distributors has the exclusive rights to distribute Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch beers across much of western Wayne County, including Metro Airport.

A liquor commission investigator determined that the airline was illegally importing alcohol into Michigan and was breaking the law by purchasing from an unlicensed source...

For years, Northwest shipped its beer, wine and spirits to Metro aboard wide-body jets — and the airline says it was allowed to do so under the law.

But as it expanded its presence at the airport and its wide-body planes were routed to long-haul, international flights, Northwest began to truck in supplies in the mid-1990s.

Northwest believes it has some additional arguments in its favor, however. Except for a few flights from Detroit to cities such as Grand Rapids, Flint, and Traverse City, its alcohol is used in interstate commerce and not consumption in Michigan. (It uses Michigan wholesalers to provision its in-airport WorldClubs). Moreover, Michigan has apparently not yet subjected other airlines to the same requirement: "Representatives of other airlines said they fly in enough alcohol for their outbound flights."

Northwest estimates the additional cost of purchasing alcohol in Michigan at $3 million per year, 8x what American Airlines expects to save by removing pillows from its flights. Maybe Northwest should hold Detroit's pillows hostage in exchange for a break from the liquor laws.

Update: Broken link fixed.