Law Question. Law Question. Marissa owns Found Foods, a four-star farm-to-table restaurant in San Diego. Much of the food she serves at her restaurant she grows at a farm she owns just outside of San Diego. Her prized vegetable is broccoli. She grows ten acres of this luscious vegetable.
Marissa grows more than she can use so she sells the excess to other restaurants in California and Arizona. Last week she received a notice from the federal government that the broccoli market was saturated so congress passed legislation that limits each small family farm to growing just three acres. This is necessary, they say, to prevent broccoli prices from plummeting, resulting in a broccoli shortage. Marissa is outraged.
Marissa’s reputation as a broccoli aficionado resulted in a publishing contract with cookbook publisher Fruitbowl Press. Her book, titled Broccoli for Lovers, explores the many ways broccoli can spruce up one’s romantic encounters. On the cover is Edgar Degas’ 1897 painting titled “After the Bath,” showing a fully nude woman exiting a bathtub full of broccoli. (Marissa, of course, photo-shopped the broccoli in the tub.)
Her publisher called to tell her that the book would not be available in bookstores located in Texas.The Texas state legislature passed an “anti-obscenity” law that bans the sale of books with titles “offensive to anyone in the community.” A Texas resident complained that the cookbook is “sexually suggestive.” Her 12-year-old son saw the book at the local bookstore and was, she said, traumatized. He now refuses to eat the vegetable, or to ever again take a bath. The book is now banned from every bookstore and retail outlet throughout the entire state of Texas. Marissa is enraged!
Later while browsing in the cookbook section of a San Diego bookstore Marissa picked up a copy of Broccoli in Love, a cookbook by Conrad, a chef who used to work at Marissa’s restaurant. Marissa is shocked by what she sees. The book cover has on it the same Edgar Degas painting used on her book, but instead of the broccoli in the tub it’s in a bowl on a table. All of the recipes in Conrad’s book are identical to Marissa’s recipes. Conrad had access to these recipes while working at Marissa’s restaurant! Marissa is furious!
Marissa returns to the restaurant kitchen to take her mind off of all the madness. She’s preparing her famous Broccoli Flambe (a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames.) This entree is typically delivered to the guest by Marissa since she is trained in handling flaming dishes. It’s ready to go but Marissa is on the phone to her lawyer so she motions for Jonny, an inexperienced bus person, to deliver the dish to table 7. On the way to the table Jonny trips over an exposed electrical cord, causing the dish to fly through the air, landing on and severely burning Marcus, a customer.
As expected, lawsuits begin to fly. Answer the questions below based on this scenario.
1. Marissa had planned on growing 10 acres of broccoli next season to fulfill orders from a restaurant in Arizona. The three-acre limit means she can’t fill the order. She contacts you, her attorney, for advice.
a)Where in the U.S. Constitution will Congress claim that they have the power to tell Marissa how much broccoli she can grow? Just the particular clause.
b)What is the test the courts use to determine whether or not Congress has this power?
c)I discussed a U.S. Supreme Court case in the PowerPoint videos that had a similar fact scenario? Tell us the name of the case and provide a one or two sentence summary of the facts.
2. This question also refers to the government effort to limit the amount of broccoli that Marissa can grow.
a)Using the test you laid out in 1.b. above, use facts to make the case for the government that they can regulate the amount of broccoli that Marissa can grow. Here you are the government’s advocate.
b)Now make the case for Marissa that the government has exceeded its authority. Here you are Marissa’s advocate.
c)Let’s say for this question that Marissa decides not to sell any broccoli, but plans to use all that she grows only in her restaurant. Will that make a difference? Explain.
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