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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit last week approved a request that will allow the beef checkoff program to continue while the U.S. Department of Justice seeks Supreme Court review of a case challenging the program's constitutionality. With the stay in place, producers must continue to pay the mandatory $1 per-head checkoff each time a bovine animal is sold. The ruling provides for the stay to remain in effect until at least Jan. 27, 2004. In effect, the decision extends the stay issued by District Judge Charles Kornmann of South Dakota in June 2002. Kornmann’s injunction called for ending the checkoff program on the grounds that it violates some cattle producers' First Amendment rights by forcing them to pay for beef promotion messages with which they do not agree. Specifically, plaintiffs have complained that the checkoff promotes beef in general rather than just U.S. beef. Importers also pay the checkoff assessment. In July, a panel of three judges at the Eighth Circuit agreed with Kornmann's ruling, and in August the Justice Department requested a rehearing by the full panel of judges at the Eighth Circuit. On Oct. 16, the Eighth Circuit denied that request, and DOJ followed on Oct. 17 by filing the request for a stay on the injunction. The pork checkoff suffered another defeat recently when the Sixth Circuit Court agreed with a Michigan district court finding that it is also unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the Ninth Circuit has been asked to consider a conflicting decision on the beef checkoff issued by U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull of Montana in November 2002. |
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