HEARD ON THE BEAT / BUZZ FROM THE BUSINESS WORLD
Having a Cow: Why does Gallo Cattle Co. keep losing its 1st Amendment lawsuit? . . . It’s probably the cheese!
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a judge’s order dismissing Gallo’s suit against the California Milk Advisory Board.
The cattle company, a partnership owned by Joseph Gallo and his son Michael, had claimed its free-speech rights were violated because the firm was forced under state law to contribute to the Real California Cheese advertising campaign.
The campaign includes slogans such as: “Why Wisconsin hates us . . . It’s the cheese!” “The only thing Berkeley never protested . . . It’s the cheese!” and “Why one of three Californians are bilingual . . . It’s the cheese!”
The state’s dairy farmers are assessed a small fee to pay for the campaign and other generic advertisements of milk and dairy products.
Gallo, one of the state’s biggest milk producers, said the campaign used “long-running billboards proclaiming messages that are not only corny and even idiotic but [that] carry ideological overtones.”
The 9th Circuit disagreed.
“As the defendants point out, these ads are so evidently ‘tongue in cheek,’ it is difficult to imagine how they could be interpreted as having ideological overtones.”
