021058 Federal Judge Upholds Beef CheckoffOctober 31, 2002Billings, MT - A federal judge ruled that the national beef checkoff is constitutional, even as similar programs have been struck down by other federal judges as a violation of free speech. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's decision came in the case of a Montana ranching couple who refused to pay $1-per-head tax on some cattle, and faced more than $12,000 in penalties and past charges. Steve and Jeanne Charter argued that the checkoff violated their rights as independent producers by forcing them to pay for advertising campaigns they didn't necessarily agree with. Half of the money from the checkoff, which yearly collects about $86 million, goes to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board and half to qualified state beef councils. The groups use the popular "Beef: It's what's for dinner" slogan in advertising. Cebull dismissed fines against the Charters, saying they should not be penalized for mounting a legal challenge. However, he ordered them to pay past charges of about $420. Jeanne Charter said she and her husband plan to appeal. In South Dakota, another federal judge, U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann, ruled this summer that the beef checkoff program is a violation of First Amendment rights, and ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to halt collections. His decision was appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which issued a stay. Last week, a federal judge in Michigan declared the USDA's pork-checkoff program "unconstitutional and rotten," ordering an end to the fee that funds a pork-promotion program. U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen said the program violated hog farmers' First Amendment free speech and association rights.
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