Subject: Re: PRESS RELEASE: Beef Checkoff Case Sent Back To Supreme Court
They are remanding back to the US District Court, District of Montana. Not the Supreme Court.
June 16, 2005 Beef Checkoff Case Sent Back to Supreme Court
(Brewster, KS) - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling today remanding Charter v. USDA to the Supreme Court for further consideration. The presiding justices ruled that the case did, indeed, call for reevaluation as to whether the Beef Check-off program associated plaintiffs with messages and organizations they do not support and to determine whether a first amendment violation has taken place.
Plaintiffs in the case feel they are forced to fund and are associated with messages and organizations with which they disagree. Jeanne Charter, in an affidavit, stated "The checkoff [program] results in our being associated, against our will, with positions both political and economic, from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the primary checkoff contractor...We are not members of the NCBA, yet as cattle producers, we are associated with their messages."
The Supreme Court, which declared the checkoff constitutional on May 23, 2005, will now evaluate the case again regarding a First Amendment violation.
Serving on the four-judge panel in today's ruling were Richard F. Cebull, District Judge, presiding, along with District Justices William C. Canby, Jr., Kim McLane Wardlaw, and Ronald M. Gould.
The court's opinion can be viewed on the Ninth District Court of Appeal's website or athttp://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/A97075E63E8725AB88257022004CEB9A/$file/0236140o.pdf?openelement.
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They are remanding back to the US District Court, District of Montana. Not the Supreme Court.
June 16, 2005 Beef Checkoff Case Sent Back to Supreme Court
(Brewster, KS) - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling today remanding Charter v. USDA to the Supreme Court for further consideration. The presiding justices ruled that the case did, indeed, call for reevaluation as to whether the Beef Check-off program associated plaintiffs with messages and organizations they do not support and to determine whether a first amendment violation has taken place.
Plaintiffs in the case feel they are forced to fund and are associated with messages and organizations with which they disagree. Jeanne Charter, in an affidavit, stated "The checkoff [program] results in our being associated, against our will, with positions both political and economic, from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the primary checkoff contractor...We are not members of the NCBA, yet as cattle producers, we are associated with their messages."
The Supreme Court, which declared the checkoff constitutional on May 23, 2005, will now evaluate the case again regarding a First Amendment violation.
Serving on the four-judge panel in today's ruling were Richard F. Cebull, District Judge, presiding, along with District Justices William C. Canby, Jr., Kim McLane Wardlaw, and Ronald M. Gould.
The court's opinion can be viewed on the Ninth District Court of Appeal's website or athttp://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/A97075E63E8725AB88257022004CEB9A/$file/0236140o.pdf?openelement.
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