Posted December 3, 2013
The United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA), defendant-intervenor in a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s Country of Origin Labeling rule (COOL), announced it received notification that oral arguments in the appeal of the denial of plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction are scheduled for January 9, 2014, according to an article by Farm Futures available here. The High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal and the Oklahoma Farm Report also reported on the story hereand here.
The oral arguments will be heard by Chief Judge Garland, Circuit Judge Srinivasan, and Senior Circuit Judge Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit, American Meat Institute, et al. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, was filed on July 8, 2013, alleging that the COOL final rule violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, violates the Agricultural Marketing Act, and violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint is available here. The District Court Judge denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction to stop implementation of the final rule on September 11. The memorandum opinion is available here.
Plaintiffs then appealed the denial of the preliminary injunction and moved for an expedited hearing. On October 29, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied plaintiffs motion for an expedited hearing.
The COOL final rule, available here, became effective on May 23, 2013 and modified certain provisions of the COOL regulations after the World Trade Organization (WTO) found that aspects of the regulations violated U.S. trade obligations. The final rule requires labels on certain cuts of meat to provide information on where it was born, raised, and slaughtered.
For background information on the lawsuit and WTO ruling, recent posts from this blog are available hereand here. For more information on COOL, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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