Use only government data to set tobacco import subsidies
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco v. US Department of Agriculture involved a statutory provision requiring tobacco manufacturers and importers to make subsidy payments to tobacco growers. The statute required basing those payments on all "relevant information,"
and the legal question was whether that phrase meant only information that was "precise and verified by another federal agency." Judge Jackson agreed that it did.
She concluded that Congress intended "to rely only on information that other federal law enforcement agencies have already verified." She held that the term "other relevant information"
should include only information that was similar to the categories of agency-substantiated information specifically enumerated earlier in the statute.
