020715 USDA Seeks Beef Checkoff Stay

Sioux Falls, SD - The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a motion seeking a stay of a federal judge's decision to halt collections of the beef checkoff program, pending an appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles B. Kornmann ruled last month that the national beef checkoff program violated the First Amendment rights of cattle producers and called for the USDA to halt collection for the program starting July 15.

The ruling was appealed last week and in Monday's motion, the USDA asked the U.S. Eighth Circuit of Appeals to grant a stay by Thursday. The USDA must have a decision by that date so it will have time to notify collectors whether they must comply with Kornmann's injunction, the motion said.

Since 1985, livestock producers have had to pay a mandatory $1-per-head fee on cattle sold in the United States. Half of that money goes to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board and half to qualified state beef councils. The groups came up with the popular "Beef: It's what's for dinner" slogan.

Those opposed to the checkoff are upset that the advertisements promote beef in general and not American beef.

In his opinion, Kornmann said cattlemen should not be required to pay for commercials, which is a form of speech, that they are opposed to.

But the USDA said the nationwide injunction to halt collections was too broad.

"One, the district court entered a nationwide injunction even though this was not a class action and only five individual plaintiffs were found to have standing. The fact that the checkoff was originally approved by a majority of the cattlemen voting on it ... makes such a nationwide injunction particularly improper," the document said. "Two, the district court's injunction bars the collection of the entire one dollar checkoff even though only about half of each dollar goes to generic advertising."

The motion also said cattle producers would suffer minimal harm if required to take part in the beef checkoff program while the appeal is ongoing.

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