January 16, 2015 – DENVER, CO. A western, nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation with decades of experience battling for the payment of “just compensation” for the “unconstitutional taking” of property today welcomed a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit involving a regulatory program adopted during the Great Depression that caused the “taking” of a California family’s crops. Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) filed a friend of the court brief urging review and disputing a panel’s ruling that Marvin and Laura Horne, husband and wife, who produce raisins as Raisin Valley Farms of Kerman, California, are not entitled to just compensation. The family will make its second appearance at the high court. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the family could raise a constitutional defense against federal agency action. The Ninth Circuit held there was not a taking because real property was not involved, the family did not lose all the value of its property, and the family received a public benefit.

“We are delighted the case will be heard. Given the direct, compelled transfer of private property to the federal government, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling makes no sense,” said William Perry Pendley, president of MSLF.

Under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues a Raisin Marketing Order (RMO), which restricts the amount of raisins from a crop year that raisin handlers in California may sell on the open market. Handlers must separate raisins into “free tonnage,” which they may sell, and “reserve tonnage,” which they then transfer to the Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC) for it to sell in secondary and non-competitive markets to fund its administration.

The Hornes have farmed raisins in California since 1969. In 2002, Raisin Valley Farms—in partnership with Lassen Vineyards, owned by the Hornes and Ms. Horne’s parents—purchased equipment to clean, sort, stem, and package their own raisins, that is, to function as a handler. In addition to handling raisins produced by their farm, they processed raisins for other local growers, but did not comply with the RMO and did not transfer title to a portion of their crops to the RAC.

In April 2004, the Agriculture Marketing Service took legal action against the Hornes for crop years 2002–2003 and 2003–2004, when they were required to set aside 47 percent and 30 percent, respectively. The attempt by the Hornes to challenge the $695,226 in penalties levied against them on constitutional groups was rejected by the lower federal courts.

Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado.