On Monday the Supreme Court ruled to deny R-CALF’s request to have their lawsuit against the national beef checkoff considered by the court. This effectively puts an end to this case which has been going on for nearly six years.
The premise of the case was that USDA does not have enough oversight on the national beef checkoff.
But the high court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove that claim and that the agency is using the checkoff the way it was intended in the national act and order.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association defended the checkoff in court and CEO Colin Woodall says the ruling was vindication and a real win for the nation’s cattle producers. He says, “This ruling was not a surprise because we knew that the whole lawsuit process has been nothing but a politically motived effort by R-CALF to one again try to disparage the checkoff and disparage NCBA. So we’ve always known that the oversight has been in place, we know that the oversight is robust. We know that these dollars are being used the way there were intended to be used.”
Woodall added that R-CALF aligned itself with animal activist group Public Justice to gain support for their legal battle, which is tied in with groups like PETA.
This is not the end of the story as R-CALF has another lawsuit against the beef checkoff that is working its way through the courts. This one claims USDA has violated the Administrative Procedures Act.
