D.C. Circuit To Consider Requirements For Compelled Disclosures

Christine Walz is an Associate in our Washington, D.C. office.

The D.C. Circuit will rehear American Meat Institute v. U.S. Department of Agriculture en banc later this month. This case presents a First Amendment challenge to a rule requiring that meat products be labeled with precise country of origin information at each of three production steps. 

Last month, a panel of the D.C. Circuit upheld the lower court ruling in the case, which held that the rule did not violate the First Amendment. 

When it hears the case en banc, the D.C. Circuit will consider what the government must show in order to regulate commercial speech by requiring disclosures that are purely factual and non-controversial.