Picture, if you will, a scheme whereby the government confiscates up for 47% of your annual harvest. California raisin farmer Marvin Horne calls such an arrangement communism and he and his wife Laura decided one day they had had enough of this cronyism and decided to fight back. The During 2002 the Hornes outright refused to hand over the government their crop that is part of a farm program created to solve a problem during the Truman administration.

The program is an example not just of New Deal cronyism but environmental regulation run amok. It works like this: In a given year, the government may conclude that the supply of raisins is more than Americans will consume resulting in supply to outstripping demand. Raisin prices would drop and, in theory, raisin farmers could go out of business. To prevent that, the government seizes a percentage of every farmer’s raisins, most times without compensation.

The seized raisins are then put into a government-controlled reserve that keeps them off U.S. markets. Doing that is supposed to lower the available supply of raisins and thereby increases the price for farmers’ raisin crops. At least the part of the raisin crops that the government didn’t take.

In addition to demanding payment for the raisins they had failed to surrender, the USDA levied huge fines against the Hornes with their outstanding balance reaching over a million dollars. An astronomical figure for a small, family-owned farm. After almost a decade of court battles, the couple prevailed. The Supreme Court just handed down a unanimous ruling today siding with the California raisin farmers. Courthouse News reports Chief Justice Roberts stated speaking for the court:

“The government cannot now disavow that valuation, and does not suggest that the marketing order affords the Hornes compensation in that amount,” the chief justice added. “There is accordingly no need for a remand; the Hornes should simply be relieved of the obligation to pay the fine and associated civil penalty they were assessed when they resisted the government’s effort to take their raisins. This case, in litigation for more than a decade, has gone on long enough.”

In the below video 2013 video, ReasonTV reports on what the Horne’s plight in fighting the USDA.>br />