Source: Dani Friedland, MEATINGPLACE, 9/26/13


A judge has dismissed a case brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other plaintiffs, ruling that they “lack constitutional standing” in a suit involving the sale of the “Pork: The Other White Meat” slogan.

HSUS, Harvey Dillenburg, and the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement sued Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack under the Administrative Procedure Act, challenging Vilsack's approval of the National Pork Board's purchase of the slogan from the National Pork Producers Council as well as his annual approval of the payments made to NPPC under the purchase agreement.

The plaintiffs argued that the agreement would result in pork checkoff dollars being used to influence legislation. Vilsack moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and, in a 34-page ruling issued Wednesday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, United States District Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted the dismissal request.

“The Humane Society and the ICCI do not have a stake in how the Board spends the checkoff funds, and there has been no showing that Mr. Dillenburg or the individual members of the associations have suffered an injury in fact that was caused by the secretary's actions and can be redressed by this lawsuit,” Jackson wrote.

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