The decisions came quickly: In February 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the California Table Grape Commission unconstitutional. On March 31, a Federal District Court judge ruled the Washington Apple Commission's mandatory assessments unconstitutional. On that very same day, the Florida Department of Citrus was also ruled unconstitutional by another court.
The National Beef Board and National Pork Board have also been in court, fighting off challenges to their checkoff programs which, like their produce counterparts, go to fund advertisements, promotions and related incentives designed to boost consumption.
Some, like WAC, disbanded and have ceased retail-oriented operations. Others, like the National Beef Board, are determined to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Retailers were almost universal in their support of seeing the organizations continue their full range of activities -- most of which focus on moving product out through the store level.
2004 will be another important year as commodity boards struggle for survival. In the National Beef Board case, officials are waiting for the Department of Justice to file briefs with the Supreme Court. The group is more confident than others who've had their retail promotional activities curtailed by the nation's top justices because of the way the two pending cases were heard. While the group lost a South Dakota case, a second challenge in Montana -- using a verbatim transcript of the first case -- was decided in favor of the checkoff program.
