Raisin Marketing Order Is a Taking.

The plaintiff grew and packed raisins and refused to forfeit 47 percent of his crop in one year and 30 percent of his crop in another year to the USDA for the privilege of selling the balance of his crop not subject to the marketing Order implemented in 1949 that is based on the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 allowing the USDA to seize the specified percentages of his crop.  The USDA fined the plaintiff $483,843.53 for the market value of the raisins he refused to give up, plus a $200,000 civil penalty for disobeying the marketing order.  The plaintiff sued for a constitutional taking.  Reversing the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a physical taking was involved since title to the subject grapes had been taken by the government.  As such, the plaintiff was entitled to "just compensation" under the Fifth Amendment.  That amount was the market value of the amount of the grapes that the government seized.  Horne v. United States Department of Agriculture, No. 14-275, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 4064 (U.S. Sup. Ct. Jun. 22, 2015).