Lyle Denniston writing for Scotusblog
Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion for the Court did not declare a final victory for the California raisin-producing family involved in the case, but it did give them a chance to bring a fundamental challenge to the government’s authority to fine them for failing to put aside a part of their annual processing of raisins in order to help boost the price of raisins generally.
Lyle continues, it is seen as a blow to regulation generally. If they cannot just smack you without arguing about it then it makes regulation harder, even if the decision is seen to be limited to agriculture.
But what is the deal with raisins? Come on.
The government is closely regulating, not just regular regulating, closely regulating crops since the Depression (the one Greater than this one, apparently) and continues to enforce a whole array of marketing mandates affecting a full range of crops and various commodities. Farmers are paid to distort the market.
Now the couple who claims this whole setup is unAmerican and smells like Communism, reeks of it in fact, smells like a… settle down, can challenge without first paying half a million bucks in penalties for failing to cooperate in keeping the cost of raisins higher than they need be.
I cannot continue.
I did continue. The ruling is potentially a major setback for the Department of Agriculture.
Do love me some raisins. Put 'em in the sourdough stuffing last night and changed the whole thing, like )))schwing(((( new thing. In fact, I still have some. I'm hungry.
11 comments:
The Raisins don't raise themselves unless somebody is there to raise them but there is no one there to raise them if you did.
And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
Till touchdown brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no! I'm a rocket man
Rocket man! Burning out his fuse up here alone
There's been similar rulings against the EPA and I don't know who else.
Farmers get a lot of communist-style benefits and subsidies(I grew up in a farming community and no one really thinks of it that way but it is what it is)and no one seems to mind until they get bit with the other end of the beast.
Still, there really isn't an excuse for allowing the Ag Dept or EPA or any other government agency to be able to assign the level of punitive fines that they do without the accused being allowed access to courts or be assumed innocent until proven guilty.
Isn't Fresno the raisin capital of the US?
Lem - I love that EJ song. But I cannot listen to it ever. It gets stuck in my head in the worst way.
Government regulation perverts reality.
People who whine about "for profit" want the government to pick winners and losers. (like with Obamacare) Negative consequences be damned.
I make a roasted beet, arugula, quinoa and white raisin salad that's so good. The raisins make it, baby.
Victor Davis Hanson grew up on a raisin farm.
He has written quite often of how different government programs and regulations made family farming untenable.
If so many people grow raisins that the price goes down, then poor people can eat more raisins... Raisin Bran can add three scoops... or the farmers can think of other ways to expand the market, increase demand, and keep prices higher... or they can grow something else... like grape juice.
Dentists say raisins are worse than candy.
They probably stick in your teeth way worse than candy.
My dentist can bite me.
No really - he can. He's adorable.
Once you start a government program to deal with a crisis, the program won't go away just because the crisis does.
It will take positive action to kill it, and the agencies getting budgets to operate it will defend it to its last breath.
Frankly, with the amount of food that the US generates, the harvest yield numbers are what everyone looks at. The government stepping in to regulate any of what is grown and how much and who does it and filling in the gap with subsidies needs to end. There is no need for it and it stifles those trying to compete. End all food subsidies now and you will see a drop in food prices because the market will be flooded with good quality cheap food. The problem is, is that farmers and corporate farmers have built their revenue streams around the subsides, so now they will have to deal with not having them. But food/farming subsidies have to go. For good.
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