By a 5-4 vote, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the government and beef associations are within their rights to charge cattle growers for generic beef promotion campaigns. The so-called beef checkoff had been challenged by farmers and state associations as an illegal imposition and a violation of constitutional protection of free speech.

The court, however, ruled that the checkoff, the result of a 1985 law that charges ranchers $1 per head of cattle sent to slaughter, which is then used for promotion of beef products, is a protected form of government speech.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the decision for the majority, which included Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas.