498
Souter, J., dissenting
national crop, and roughly two-thirds of the peaches sold fresh. See App. 389; U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics, 1995-96, p. V-23 (Table 294). Yet the non-California peaches are utterly ignored in the Government's promotional orders. The challenged advertising campaign for "California Summer Fruits," running in markets throughout the United States and in Canada, see App. 341- 343, 477-479, does not proclaim simply that peaches or the other fruits are good things. Rather, as the Secretary tells us, the advertising program "promotes California fruit as unique." Brief for Petitioner 31. It may or may not be, but promoting a crop from one State at the expense of essentially the same thing grown in the others reveals nothing about a substantial national interest justifying the National Government in restricting speech. Without more, the most reasonable inference is not of a substantial Government interest, but effective politics on the part of producers who see the chance to spread their advertising costs. Nothing more appears.12
The Secretary makes no attempt to explain how the Act's geographical scope restrictions relate to the asserted goals of the advertising programs. The general restriction of marketing orders to the smallest practicable area has been part of the Act since it became law, long before Congress permitted compelled advertising, the authorization for which was simply grafted onto the existing Act as a convenient vehicle for the funding schemes. See n. 9, supra; see also S. Rep. No. 92-295, supra, at 2 (letter from Department of Agriculture indicating that the AMAA "could provide the facility for" financing commodity advertising programs).
12 While plum and nectarine production is more highly concentrated in California, see U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics, 1995-96, pp. V-21, V-27 to V-28 (Tables 288, 304-308), the AMAA's requirement that marketing orders cover the smallest geographical area practicable still lacks any reasonable connection to the asserted purposes of the advertising programs instituted thereunder.
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