ISSUE 1090
The
Florida Citrus Commission approved a settlement of the lawsuit in which six of
the state's largest citrus growers and the Florida Department of Citrus agreed
to drop claims for against the other and to accept a May U.S. Supreme Court decision
in favor of the Citrus Department. The growers
had filed the lawsuit in September 2002, challenging the state taxes on oranges
and grapefruit sold for juice, which are mostly used to fund orange juice advertising
campaigns. The lawsuit claimed the citrus taxes
violated the First Amendment because it amounted to a government agency forcing
the growers to support speech, advertising in this case, that they did not support.
After a series of court challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the advertising
represented "government speech" that is immune from First Amendment
challenges. ALSO IN THIS WEEK'S RAP-UP (Members-Only articles are indicated in bold.) | |
