NFIB Challenges Depression Era Law that Allows Government to Take Private Property without Compensation

Date: March 10, 2015

www.NFIB.com
For
Immediate Release
Contact:
Kelly Klass 609-713-4243 or [email protected]
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Kelly on Twitter @KellyKlassNFIB
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NFIB on Twitter @NFIB

NFIB Challenges Depression Era Law
that Allows Government to Take Private Property without Compensation

NFIB files amicus brief asking SCOTUS
to overturn a 1937 rule meant to manipulate supply and demand during the Great
Depression.

Washington, D.C., March 9, 2015 The National Federation
of Independent Business (NFIB)
Small Business Legal Center today in an
amicus brief asked the US Supreme Court to strike down a New Deal era law that
forces raisin growers to surrender a portion of their annual crop without any
compensation.

“Since before the invention of colored television, this law
has forced raisin growers, under the threat of severe federal penalties, to
hand over their produce to the federal government under a program meant to
control supply and demand,” said Karen Harned, Executive Director of NFIB’s
Small Business Legal Center
.  “It is an outdated regulation. It was
bad policy then, just as its bad policy today. For nearly 80 years, this regime
has systematically robbed raisin growers of their private property, in clear violation
of the U.S. Constitution’s protections for private property.” 

At issue in the case, Horne v. the United States
Department of Agriculture
, is whether a federal agency is permitted to take
personal property without providing just compensation.  Under a Depression
era law, raisin growers are required to turn over portions of their annual
crop—sometimes as much as almost half of their crop.  California raisin
growers argued that the USDA was violating the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause
and filed suit when they were fined for refusing to relinquish their
crop. 

“If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the USDA, it will
enable government agencies to adopt similar practices of taking private
property without compensation,” Harned continued. “This is not just about the
raisin growers. Small business just want to run their own businesses without
the government reaching into their pockets.

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