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Ocheesee Creamery Llcv.Adam H. Putnam, Et Al

CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Docket No.16-12049
DecidedMarch 20, 2017
JudgesUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Tags
CivilConstitutional LawFirst AmendmentFree SpeechSummary JudgmentVacaturRemand
Case Summary

Ocheesee Creamery challenged Florida’s prohibition on describing its dairy product as skim milk. The district court granted summary judgment to the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and a state official, but the Eleventh Circuit vacated the judgment. The court held that the Creamery’s proposed labeling was commercial speech and that the State’s restriction required constitutional scrutiny rather than automatic deference to a regulatory definition. The record and the parties’ summary-judgment briefing did not adequately identify the statutory and factual basis for the prohibition or permit the court to determine whether the restriction was narrowly tailored to a legitimate interest. The appellate court therefore declined to resolve the ultimate First Amendment question on the existing record. It vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings, including a proper analysis of the challenged labeling restriction and the applicable constitutional standard.

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Ocheesee Creamery Llc V. Adam H. Putnam, Et Al — The Atlanta Gleaner