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9th Circ. OKs USDA Win In Clash Over Ads To Eat More Beef
Law360 (July 27, 2021, 10:08 PM EDT) -- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's summary judgment win against independent ranchers challenging assessments on cattle sales that fund industry groups' pro-beef consumption advertisements, holding in a published opinion Tuesday the advertisements are government speech exempt from First Amendment scrutiny.
In their opinion Tuesday, the panel affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment to the USDA, rejecting a challenge by the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, or R-CALF USA, to the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 — which imposes a $1 mandatory assessment or a "checkoff" on each head of cattle sold...