US Magistrate Judge Recommends District Court Grant R-CALF USA's Preliminary Injunction Request

This week, a U.S. magistrate judge recommended that the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana grant R-CALF USA’s request for a preliminary injunction in a case involving the beef checkoff.The injunction would stop USDA from continuing to allow the Montana State Beef Council to use checkoff dollars to fund its advertising campaigns unless a cattle producer provides prior affirmative consent that his/her checkoff dollars may be retained by the council for that purpose.The ruling relates to a lawsuit R-CALF filed against the national beef checkoff program in May.The lawsuit alleges it is unconstitutional for the government to allow private beef councils, like the Montana State Beef Council, to keep and spend one-half of all checkoff dollars to pay for the beef council’s private speech when R-CALF members disagree with such speech.The private speech R-CALF members disagree with is the beef council’s message that foreign beef is the same as, and is just as good as, beef produced exclusively from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. The U.S. District Court must now conduct an independent review of the magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations. As part of that independent review, the government now has 14 days to object to or otherwise request an appeal of the magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations.