Cite as: 533 U. S. 405 (2001)
Breyer, J., dissenting
tion of the mushroom market might have been implemented under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937"); 7 U. S. C. §§ 608c(2), (6)(A), (7). But in neither case has she actually done so. Perhaps that is why the Court in Wile-man did not rely heavily upon the existence of the Secretary's authority to regulate prices or output. See 521 U. S., at 469 (noting statutory scheme in passing).
Regardless, it is difficult to understand why the presence or absence of price and output regulations could make a critical First Amendment difference. The Court says that collective fruit advertising (unlike mushroom advertising) was the "logical concomitant" of the more comprehensive "economic" regulatory "scheme." Ante, at 412. But it does not explain how that could be so. Producer price-fixing schemes seek to keep prices higher than market conditions might otherwise dictate, as do restrictions on supply. Antitrust exemptions are a "logical concomitant," for otherwise the price or output agreement might be held unlawful. But collective advertising has no obvious comparable connection. As far as Wileman or the record here suggests, collective advertising might, or might not, help bring about prices higher than market conditions would otherwise dictate. Certainly nothing in Wileman suggests the contrary. Cf. 521 U. S., at 477 (Souter, J., dissenting) (criticizing the Court for not requiring advertising program to be "reason-ably necessary to implement the regulation").
By contrast, the advertising here relates directly, not in an incidental or subsidiary manner, to the regulatory program's underlying goal of "maintain[ing] and expand[ing] existing markets and uses for mushrooms." 7 U. S. C. § 6101(b)(2). As the Mushroom Act's economic goals indicate, collective promotion and research is a perfectly traditional form of government intervention in the marketplace. Promotion may help to overcome inaccurate consumer perceptions about a product. See Hearings on H. R. 1776 et al. before the Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations,
421
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007