12 June 2007
Juanita Swendenburg, r.i.p.
Juanita Swedenburg, 82, the Middleburg winemaker who won a U.S. Supreme Court battle to allow wine shipments between states, died of congestive heart failure June 9 at her home.
Mrs. Swedenburg, who operated one of Loudoun County's smallest wineries, became the lead plaintiff in a David-vs.-Goliath battle over interstate wine sales after becoming annoyed that she could not ship any of her 2,000 annual cases of wine to customers in New York or Michigan.
This was one of the two cases which occupied a good part of my attention in 2004 and 2005 as I wrote my law review comment. They also provided my first opportunity to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court, an experience for which I'm very grateful.
The full obituary is on the Washington Post's website, at least for a little while. I love reading obituaries that give you a sense of a person's life; this is one of those.