High Court Asked to Hear Mushroom Case

August 22, 2000

The Supreme Court has been asked to consider whether or not a mushroom research and promotion programs that USDA oversees is constitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice petitioned the high court to hear the case on behalf of USDA.

Justice filed the petition for a writ of certiorari to hear the case of USDA v. United Foods following the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals' March 23 decision in Cincinnati, OH, to deny a rehearing. This resulted from the court's ruling on Nov. 23, 1999, that the portion of the Mushroom Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act which requires the payment of assessments for advertising and promotion violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The decision of the appeals court reversed a July 1998 judgment by the U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The decision of this district court followed a June 1997 Supreme Court ruling (Glickman v. Wileman Bros. & Elliott, Inc.) regarding the constitutionality of compelled funding of generic advertising under two federal marketing orders for California tree fruit.

In the Wileman case, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory assessments for generic advertising did not violate the First Amendment because they did not restrain or compel any speech by particular industry members and did not advance any political or ideological views. The Sixth Circuit held that Wileman was not controlling since the tree fruit promotion statute was part of a broader industry regulatory scheme, and the mushroom program was not.

The government argues, in the petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 18, that the appeals court erroneously applied the Wileman case, and that other decisions among various circuit courts in the nation conflict with the Sixth Circuit's position.

Research and promotion programs are intended to expand, maintain, and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service oversees 14 of these industry self-help programs. They are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. These programs provide the means for industry to conduct product and market research, and they empower individuals to work together to address common marketing problems, according to USDA.