05/24/05 Surpreme Court upholds beef checkoff

American Rancher May 24, 2005 It was an unusual mixture of Justices, but the United State Supreme Court on Monday upheld the national beef checkoff in a 6-3 decision. The ruling put a smile on the face of Al Svajgar, chairman of the Cattlemen's Beef Board, which administers the assessment that pays for such programs as the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" advertising campaign. Svajgary: "We were hoping for this decision. We were ready for any decision, but certainly this is a tribute for all the hard work that has gone into the beef checkoff." The Livestock Marketing Association and others, had challenged the checkoff claiming it violated free speech rights but the Supreme Court said the beef checkoff was government speech and immune from 1st Amendment challenge. LMA spokesman John McBride says they are disappointed and have not yet decided on what their next action will be. McBride: "We have not made any decisions on any possible future legal actions. A question came up, are we going to pursue the referendum battle which got us into this? We have not made a decision on that." Northwest states have their own beef assessments but also rely upon the resources of the national program so they too were pleased with the high court's ruling. Laura Wilder. executive director of the Idaho Beef Council, says the checkoff has played a key role in the dramatic increase in beef demand. Wilder: "Beef demand has increased more than 25% in the last seven years." LMA attorney and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe says a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas leaves the door open to a free speech challenge based on other facts and the court's ruling does not address freedom of association, which is an issue in the pork checkoff case. I'm Bob Hoff.