The next time you go to Ruth Chris, Morton’s, Prime 112 or any steakhouse, meat-eating joint, you might know a little more about that piece of steak you are about to scarf down.
Ruling that meat producers must disclose where animals are born, raised and slaughtered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sitting en banc last week, laid out a new standard for commercial speech, one that gives the government more leeway to force companies to disclose information about their products.
First Amendment experts said the ruling breaks new ground. “The majority opinion rewrites commercial-speech doctrine to permit disclosure requirements even where there is no risk of consumer confusion or deception,” said Robert Corn Revere, a First Amendment partner at Davis Wright Tremaine.
