The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia again upheld the U.S. country of origin labeling (COOL) law by issuing the fourth and fifth pro-COOL court orders that effectively establish that the COOL law is constitutional, that Congress had the authority to pass COOL, and that implementing regulations for COOL are in compliance with the COOL statute, reports Morning Ag Clips.
The first court order denies the request by the American Meat Institute (AMI), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and seven other foreign and domestic meat industry trade groups for a rehearing of the July decision by the District of Columbia appeals court. The entire slate of 11 judges upheld two previous court decisions that ruled that COOL does not violate the meat lobby’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.
The second order denies the request for a rehearing by the appeals court’s three-judge panel that ruled against the foreign and domestic meat lobby on their non-First Amendment claims.