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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

> Permission to cross post this good news!
> Sheila Leonard
> ******************
>
> > From Liberty Matters:
> http://www.libertymatters.org/newsservice/newsservice.htm
>
> U.S. District Court Judge Orders Suspension of NAIS
> On June 4, 2008, the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, ordered 
> the Department of Agriculture to suspend its plan to identify and document 
> every animal in the U.S.  The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) 
> was to have been fully implemented by June 9, 2009.  It is now on hold 
> indefinitely.  The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit; Mary-Louise 
> Zanoni v. United States Department of Agriculture.  Ms. Zanoni, an upstate 
> New York attorney has been a vocal and persistent leader in the fight 
> against the NAIS that opponents believe would lead to more government 
> regulation and less personal freedom.  NAIS was never legitimized by 
> Congress.  USDA just proceeded to shove it down an unwilling public's 
> throat, much like President Bush and his Canadian and Mexican cohorts are 
> trying to do with the Security and Prosperity Partnership (North American 
> Union).  Several state cattlemen's associations have also accused USDA of 
> "registering premises without the consent of the own
> ers, helping themselves to states' agriculture databases and harassing 
> young 4-H kids.  These groups have formally requested leaders of the 
> Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the House 
> Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to stop NAIS and hold 
> oversight hearings on USDA's movements.  The Farm-to-Consumer Legal 
> Defense Fund filed suit July 14, 2008, in the same federal district court 
> (with the same judge presiding that suspended NAIS in June) to stop USDA 
> and the Michigan Department of Agriculture to cease and desist any further 
> implementation of NAIS.  The suit also charges USDA has never published 
> NAIS rules, a violation of the Federal Administrative Procedures Act, has 
> never performed an Environmental Impact Statement or Assessment and is in 
> violation of religious freedoms guaranteed by the Religious Freedom 
> Restoration Act.   Increasingly, federal and state bureaucracies are 
> blatantly trying to force unpalatable programs on citizens w
> i
> thout bothering to follow the laws.  This victory should be a reminder to 
> the higher-ups that this is a nation of citizens, not subjects.
>
> Farmers and Ranchers Fight NAIS - and Win