"Got Milk" Ad Campaign
Cochran v. Veneman
IJ Wins Appeals Court Challenge to Government-forced Funding of “Got Milk?” Ads; U.S. Supreme Court Later Robs Farmers of Victory in Related Case
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IJ clients and dairy farmers Brenda and Joe Cochran
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Milk producers who are forced to pay for those ubiquitous “got milk?” ads asked the federal courts, “got free speech?” Unfortunately, after a victory in the lower appellate courts, the Supreme Court answered that they don’t. Although just about everyone has seen the “got milk?” ads on television and in print, most people do not know that (under the federal Dairy Promotion Program) dairy farmers are forced to pay for them. For traditional dairy farmers Joseph and Brenda Cochran from Westfield, Pa., the assessments added up to a hefty $4,000 a year from their thin operating budget for advertisements that obscure the distinctions between the Cochrans’ traditional farmed milk and the milk of large-scale producers. Fed up with this violation of their rights, the Cochrans challenged the law in court.
Represented by the Institute for Justice, they successfully argued to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that this form of government-compelled speech violated their First Amendment right to refrain from paying for speech with which they disagreed. The 3rd Circuit agreed, and in February 2004 ruled the law unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a related case that compelled speech programs, like the Dairy Program, amount to “government speech.” This means that the government can force the Cochrans and other farmers to pay for ads that allegedly benefit the whole of society.
“[T]o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
—Thomas Jefferson