Iowa State Economist says marketing boards should take note of a recent US Supreme Court decision

John Crespi, Iowa State University professor of economics, warns in a recent ARE Update article that marketing programs such as the beef and pork checkoffs may be implicated by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that union dues for non-union members in public sector unions violate the First Amendment by compelling participation. The issue for farmers is that such dues are very similar to the billions of dollars in assessments that many farmers are compelled to pay for checkoff programs, in which not every farmer wishes to participate. Marketing boards may have thought the legality of their programs had long been settled, but the recent case of Janus v. AFSCME may lead to future litigation over generic advertising and promotion of agricultural commodities.
source: https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/giannini_public/8c/cb/8ccbf5e9-97cb-47e0-afe5-33870c3cb855/v21n6.pdf

(Released August 2018)