The Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 enables the Agriculture Department to seize of a portion of every California raisin farmer’s annual crop, in certain years as much as 47 percent, without a right to compensation, and in some years with no compensation at all. The seized raisins are stored in California warehouses for months or years and then sold to handlers who distribute and sell them on the world market.
Marvin Horne has been breaking the law for 11 solid years. He now owes the U.S. government at least $650,000 in unpaid fines. And 1.2 million pounds of unpaid raisins, roughly equal to his entire harvest for four years. In response to a USDA administrative enforcement proceeding against him, Mr. Horne and members of his family filed a lawsuit to claim that government seizure of farmers’ raisins without compensation is unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment.
In June, the Supreme Court heard Mr. Horne’s case and sent it back to a federal appeals court to review the constitutionality of the raisin seizures; previously the lower court had ruled that it didn’t have jurisdiction. In that hearing, Supreme Court justices showed both amusement and concern. “Your raisins or your life,” joked Justice Antonin Scalia about the penalties Mr. Horne faces. Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether it may be “just the world’s most outdated law,” and Justice Stephen Breyer said, “I can’t believe Congress wanted the taxpayers to pay for a program that’s going to mean they have to pay higher prices.”
I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's quote: "The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program".
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