7 U.S.C. § 202
Section 202 · Stockyard defined; determination by Secretary as to particular yard
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case Liberty Mutual Insurance ex rel. Arbogast & Bastian, Inc. v. Rotches Pork Packers, Inc. (1992)
Most recently applied in Billey v. North Dakota Stockmen's Ass'n (June 1998)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) When used in this subchapter the term “stockyard” means any place, establishment, or facility commonly known as stockyards, conducted, operated, or managed for profit or nonprofit as a public market for livestock producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers, consisting of pens, or other inclosures, and their appurtenances, in which live cattle, sheep, swine, horses, mules, or goats are received, held, or kept for sale or shipment in commerce.
(b) The Secretary shall from time to time ascertain, after such inquiry as he deems necessary, the stockyards which come within the foregoing definition, and shall give notice thereof to the stockyard owners concerned, and give public notice thereof by posting copies of such notice in the stockyard, and in such other manner as he may determine. After the giving of such notice to the stockyard owner and to the public, the stockyard shall remain subject to the provisions of this subchapter until like notice is given by the Secretary that such stockyard no longer comes within the foregoing definition.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1968—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90–446 substituted “operated, or managed for profit or nonprofit as a public market for livestock producers, feeders, market agencies, and buyers” for “or operated for compensation or profit as a public market”.
1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–909 struck out “Said sections shall not apply to a stockyard of which the area normally available for handling livestock, exclusive of runs, alleys, or passage ways, is less than twenty thousand square feet.”
Transportation of Livestock
Section 2(2) of Pub. L. 85–909 provided in part: “That nothing herein [this section] shall be deemed as a definition of the term ‘public stockyards’ as used in section 15(5) of the Interstate Commerce Act [former 49 U.S.C. 15(5)].”