March 18, 2022 Weekly Round Up

It has a been a wild couple of weeks around here with seven presentations since the last Weekly Round Up. Like my schedule, it’s been a busy couple of weeks in the ag law realm as well.

Photo by Kat Smith from Pexels

* Parties continue settlement discussions in Texas v. New Mexico. As noted last week, the Special Master overseeing the litigation in Texas v. New Mexico postponed the trial date and gave the parties until March 1 to report back on settlement negotiations. The parties have asked for additional time to continue ongoing negotiations and will now report back in May. [Read article here.]

* EPA makes label changes to over-the-top dicamba product use in Minnesota and Iowa. In a rare move, the EPA has modified the label for three over-the-top dicamba products (Xtendimax, Engenia, and Tavium) by adding cut off dates for use in Minnesota and Iowa. Previously, these types of state-specific modification would have been made via a 24(c) label, which is no longer allowed, or through a state rulemaking process. [Read article here.]

* House Republicans write to EPA asking for a pause on administration’s WOTUS rulemaking. In light of the United States Supreme Court accepting cert in Sackett v. EPA, 200 members of Congress have asked the EPA to delay its rulemaking process on the definition of “waters of the United States” as used in the Clean Water Act. The letter urges the EPA to wait to publish its final version of the rule until the Court has ruled in Sackett to avoid further confusion, delay, and potential necessary amendment to the new rule. [Read article here and read letter here.]

*Iowa federal court finds “ag gag” law unconstitutional.An Iowa federal court has held the state’s “ag gag” law, which provided jailtime for anyone using deception to gain access to a farm to cause physical or economic harm, unconstitutional. The court held that the legislature may not prohibit viewpoint-based speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. [Read article here.]

*National Agricultural Law Center hiring law student research fellows and staff attorney position. The National Agricultural Law Center, with whom I do a good deal of work, is currently hiring both law student research fellows as well as a staff attorney. The remote research fellow program is a great opportunity for students interested in agricultural law! [See posting here.] The staff attorney position is based in Fayetteville, AR. [See posting here.]

Upcoming Programs

Next week, I’ll be in Ft. Worth for the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Convention where I’ll be speaking on legal and economic issues surrounding direct beef sales with Dr. Justin Benavidez and in two sessions of Ask an Ag Lawyer with Jim Bradbury, Amber Miller, Kyle Weldon, and James Decker. The following week, I’ll be doing an online estate planning programs part of the East Texas Lunch and Learn program on Wednesday, March 30. I’ll round things out on Friday, April 1 in Lubbock at the Plains Cotton Growers Annual Meeting talking about carbon contracts.

Don’t forget, our final Owning Your Piece of Texas program for the Spring will be held in Burnet on April 8. These are great programs with fantastic speakers that you don’t want to miss! For more info, click here.

Lastly, as always, we have both our Owning Your Piece of Texas program and our Ranchers Leasing Workshop available as online courses. This means you can get these program on demand, anytime, anywhere! For more information, click here.