Ruling that meat producers must disclose where animals are born, raised and slaughtered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sitting en banc last week, laid out a new standard for commercial speech, one that gives the government more leeway to force companies to disclose information about their products.
Writing for the majority, Senior Judge Stephen Williams found that First Amendment concerns were offset by the government’s “substantial interest” in country-of-origin food labeling. Reasoning that information about where meat comes from is purely factual and noncontroversial, the majority ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s labeling requirement is permissible.
