Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC (ABKF) secured a Temporary Restraining Order from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, protecting fourteen businesses from enforcement of Ohio Senate Bill 56. The law bans importing out-of-state hemp into Ohio and limits market participation to companies that cultivate, source, manufacture, and distribute entirely within the State. Because each plaintiff either operates from outside Ohio or makes its products with hemp sourced from other states, the law shut them out of the Ohio market completely. United States District Judge Jeffrey J. Helmick denied the State of Ohio’s motion to stay the case and enjoined state officials from taking any criminal, civil, administrative, or regulatory action against the plaintiffs under the law’s revised definition of hemp while the litigation proceeds. The court found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that Ohio’s scheme unlawfully discriminates against interstate commerce.
Much of the harm falls on Ohio’s own businesses. Six of the fourteen plaintiffs are Ohio companies — Fifty West Brewing Company and Rhinegeist in Cincinnati, Athens Beverage in Athens, The Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Seventh Son Brewing in Columbus, and Thee Hemp Co. in Willoughby. Each is shut out of its own home market for a single reason: it chooses to buy its hemp from outside Ohio. The remaining plaintiffs are out-of-state manufacturers of federally lawful hemp products that sold throughout Ohio until Senate Bill 56 took effect. The case does not ask Ohio to abandon regulation of these products. It asks only that Ohio stop conditioning market access on an all-Ohio supply chain that federal law does not require.
Senate Bill 56 narrowed Ohio’s definition of hemp. The practical effect is that any business — in Ohio or elsewhere — that relies on hemp sourced from another state is barred from the market and exposed to felony prosecution, while businesses within Ohio’s licensed marijuana cartel continue to operate.
“This lawsuit is fundamentally about constitutional limits on government power,” said Carol A. Thompson, counsel for the plaintiffs. “Ohio used its licensing scheme to favor local operators and lock federally lawful businesses out of the market. The court’s ruling reaffirms that the Constitution does not tolerate that kind of government overreach.”
The plaintiffs have described the toll of Ohio’s enforcement on their businesses and employees. Fifty West Brewing Company founder Bobby Slattery has said the ban cost the Cincinnati brewery an estimated $2 to $3 million in lost revenue for 2026 and forced the company to move its Sunflower line across the river into Kentucky to keep selling. After the ruling restored the company’s ability to sell in Ohio, Slattery said:
“Today is definitely one worth celebrating. Our sales team can get back out there growing Sunflower, our production team can ramp up, and our retail partners have the opportunity to put it back on their shelves.”
He added that the company remains focused on the road ahead: “We know there’s still a fight ahead of us, but we’re encouraged by this step forward.” Seventh Son Brewing co-founder Collin Castore, whose Columbus brewery is among the plaintiffs, earlier captured the inconsistency the lawsuit targets: “We’re allowed to sell our friends’ THC beverages, but we’re not allowed to sell our own. Ohio, this makes no sense.”
Chris Brown, CEO of The Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland and a co-founder of the Save Ohio Bevs coalition, has described the frustration of watching a lawful market grow while Ohio producers were locked out of it: “When you talk about the popularity of these beverages, it’s a driving force obviously within the industry. And it’s the only thing that’s growing — the category that none of us can actually participate in.”
“We are fighting for Ohio businesses that are being punished simply because they choose to buy from outside the state,” said Andrew D. McCartney, counsel for the plaintiffs. “The Constitution does not let Ohio shut those companies out for competing across a state line.”
The Temporary Restraining Order provides immediate, temporary relief. ABKF has moved for a preliminary injunction to extend that protection and will continue to seek a ruling that Senate Bill 56 cannot be enforced against the plaintiffs so long as their products remain lawful under federal law.
