Meat producers from Canada and Mexico argued in federal appeals court on May 19 that the U.S. requirement for country-of-origin labels on meat products violated their First Amendment rights and that the labels were a thinly disguised effort to promote U.S. products. (CTV News, May 19, 2014, by Alexander Panetta)
A three-judge panel of the D.C. U.S. Court of Appeals had earlier ruled that the label rules were allowable. Defenders of the rules said that people had the right to know the origins of their food. One legal precedent gave the government latitude to force speech to correct misleading commercial speech. Another stricter precedent allows forced speech only to foster a substantial government interest. (McClatchyDC, May 16, 2014, by Michael Doyle)