On May 23rd, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the beef checkoff program does not violate certain beef producers’ First Amendment rights to free speech. The program, authorized by the Beef Promotion and Research Act, provides for one-dollar assessments (“checkoffs”) on cattle sales and beef imports, which are used to fund generic promotional campaigns such as “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.”

The lower courts found that the checkoff program violated certain producers’ First Amendment right to free speech by forcing them to fund a message (the generic ad campaign) with which they purportedly disagreed. USDA appealed the decision and AFBF, along with 113 agricultural organizations, filed an amicus brief in support of the checkoff program.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with USDA and the coalition of agricultural organizations in finding that the checkoff-funded generic ad campaign constitutes government speech and therefore does not violate the First Amendment. Key to the Court’s decision is the exercise of government control; Congress instituted the national policy and USDA implements the program and controls the message. Since the beef checkoff implicates government speech, private individuals can be compelled to subsidize the generic ad campaigns.

The Court’s specificity on the issue of government control leaves open the possibility that other commodity checkoffs with little government control may still be open to constitutional challenge.