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Fed's OUTRAGEOUS Demand for $500K RUINS Family Farm

In early 2016, federal agents from the U.S. Department of Labor came ...

In early 2016, federal agents from the U.S. Department of Labor came to Sun Valley Orchards to hand-deliver a letter. According to the letter, the farm—a fourth-generation family farm in ...southern New Jersey—was being ordered to pay the government over $550,000. The bulk of that amount (over $320,000) was because of a single alleged violation.

https://ij.org/case/sun-valley-administrative-appeal/

Brothers Joe and Russell Marino, the owners of Sun Valley, denied the government’s allegations, but they soon found they had no choice but to defend themselves in the agency’s in-house courts—where the judges are employed by the same agency imposing the fines. One agency judge, who presided over a four-day trial, had been employed by the Department of Labor for nearly 30 years. And then the brothers appealed from her decision to a panel of five more agency judges, all appointed by the Secretary of Labor and likewise employed by the agency. The agency served as prosecutor, judge, and jury, and the agency won every time.

Now the Marino brothers are joining with the Institute for Justice to demand their day in court, before a real federal judge. Article III of the U.S. Constitution created the system of federal courts—with judges appointed by the President, confirmed by Congress, and protected by life tenure—and vests the “judicial Power” in those federal courts. Before the government can take away half a million dollars from a family farm, the government should have to prove its case in a real court.

Unfortunately, those constitutional protections have eroded, and for decades federal agencies have expanded their use of administrative courts overseen by agency judges. Prior to the 1970s, if the government wanted to impose a monetary fine, the government almost always had to file a lawsuit in a real federal court. But today the Marino brothers’ experience is all too common, and every year thousands of farms, small businesses, and individuals are subjected to monetary fines imposed in agency courts.

After a four-year legal battle, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the agency’s actions violated the Constitution and that charges against the farm had to be brought in an independent federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the government’s appeal and will consider the case in the fall of 2026. If the government wants to take your property, you should get your day in court—not your day before a bureaucrat.Show More