David versus Goliath all over again. New Jersey farmer Joe Marino is in the bull’s-eye of a monumental legal battle with the highest stakes for agriculture and small business.
In 2016, Department of Labor (DOL) agents ordered Marino to pay $550,000 in alleged H-2A violations, triggering the collapse of his fourth-generation family operation. Despite proclaiming innocence, he was found guilty by DOL employees who operated as in-house prosecutor, judge, and jury.
Marino was denied access to an independent court or jury of his peers. He was subjected to pursuit by DOL officers, enforcement by DOL personnel, trial by DOL lawyers, decision by DOL judge, and approval by DOL appellate judges.
Marino then sued DOL in federal court: He won when the Third Circuit unanimously ruled that DOL’s actions were unconstitutional. However, DOL doubled down, appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a seismic case set to be heard in November 2026.
Will federal agencies be allowed to continue confining citizens behind bureaucratic walls with no access to outside courts? Represented by Institute for Justice, Joe Marino is the canary in the coalmine.
The Water Cooler
Sun Valley Orchards once was the biggest produce farm in New Jersey, and among the largest on the East Coast, employing approximately 180 seasonal workers as a hive of industry, sending 15-20 tractor-trailer crop loads per day to the Northeast, South, Midwest, and Canada.
Steered by brothers Joe and Russell Marino in Gloucester County, Sun Valley was in family operation through four generations, expanding from a tiny dirt patch to 3,000 acres. However, after 125 years of continuous production, the farm is now dead.
In January 2016, DOL officers from Washington, D.C., arrived at Sun Valley Orchards’ gate, claiming Marino fired his H-2A workers without compensation and stole food money from their pockets. From the get-go, the Marino denied the charges as “outrageously untrue.” Without any burden of proof beyond its own agency, DOL fined Sun Valley $550,000 and locked the Marino family in a decade of bureaucratic hell, contributing to the permanent closure of Sun Valley.
(For more, see: Family Farm Wins Historic Case After Feds Violate Constitution and Ruin Business)
“DOL made certain nobody outside the four walls of the agency could hear the facts and evidence,” Marino told Agweb in 2025.
“I never thought honesty and facts wouldn’t matter in America, but that’s what happened. We were presumed guilty from the start, and it’s shameful what they did to us.”
The Marinos bounced into DOL in-house court and faced attorneys and judges who drank from the same water cooler as the enforcement officers. (One of the judges handling Sun Valley was a 30-year DOL employee, and all the DOL judges were appointed by DOL’s Secretary of Labor.)
“It’s incestuous,” Marino said. “That’s how all our government agencies operate and maintain power.”
Sun Valley lost in DOL court. Sun Valley then appealed in DOL appellate court and lost again. “That’s the system,” Marino added. “Does anyone really think one DOL judge is going to reverse what their friend in a DOL courtroom just ruled on?”
Despite the repeated losses, the Marinos were finally free of the DOL merry-go-round. Backed by Institute for Justice (IJ), they appealed in federal court, and the Third Circuit unanimously ruled that DOL was in violation of the Constitution.
However, DOL and the administrative state wanted another bite at the apple and took the Marinos to SCOTUS. The heavyweight case, set to be heard by SCOTUS on November 10, 2026, will set historical precedent.
“This case is vital,” stresses Rob Johnson, IJ attorney. “If the government can do this to Joe Marino, they can do it to anybody. This is about fairness, the Constitution, and making sure that Joe and other Americans can defend themselves in real court.”
“This is the opportunity for the Supreme Court to say, ‘This has to stop, now.’”
Judge, Jury, Executioner
Déjà vu? In 2021, as Sun Valley launched its lawsuit against DOL, a parallel case was funneling through federal court: SEC v. Jarkesy. In Jarkesy, initially viewed as an earthshaking ruling, SCOTUS ruled that citizens are entitled to a jury trial when hit with civil penalties imposed by administrative law judges.
Jarkesy appeared to punch a gaping hole through all departmental walls. However, federal agencies, insistent on regulatory control, paid Jarkesy little mind.
“The reality is that government agencies have not changed their procedures,” Johnson notes. “We’re seeing practically every agency across the federal bureaucracy using some explanation for why Jarkesy doesn’t apply. This runs across government because there’s a huge amount of resistance to imposing Jarkesy. It shows that no matter who’s in power, at the end of the day, these agencies just want to keep their authority.”
Marino could be the test case where SCOTUS draws a line in the sand. “Basically, DOL has asked the Supreme Court to reverse the Third Circuit’s decision on Sun Valley,” Johnson continues. “The importance of this case goes way beyond farms. If DOL wins this, it means the precedent could affect anyone or any business taken into agency court across the nation.”
Bottom line, in-house courts are unconstitutional, Johnson concludes. “No one should have their property taken without a jury and judge as provided in Article lll of the Constitution. No agency should get to play judge, jury, and executioner.”
Marino awaits the SCOTUS hearing and ruling: “I don’t want this to ever, ever happen to another farmer or small business owner or American. The time for change is right now. It has to be now.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
