7 U.S.C. § 291
Section 291 · Authorization of associations; powers
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 127 court decisions — leading case Baker v. Carr (1962)
Most recently applied in United States v. United States Sugar Corporation (July 2023)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 15 U.S.C. § 1 · 15 U.S.C. § 17 · 15 U.S.C. § 15
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.
Persons engaged in the production of agricultural products as farmers, planters, ranchmen, dairymen, nut or fruit growers may act together in associations, corporate or otherwise, with or without capital stock, in collectively processing, preparing for market, handling, and marketing in interstate and foreign commerce, such products of persons so engaged. Such associations may have marketing agencies in common; and such associations and their members may make the necessary contracts and agreements to effect such purposes: Provided, however, That such associations are operated for the mutual benefit of the members thereof, as such producers, and conform to one or both of the following requirements:
First. That no member of the association is allowed more than one vote because of the amount of stock or membership capital he may own therein, or,
Second. That the association does not pay dividends on stock or membership capital in excess of 8 per centum per annum.
And in any case to the following:
Third. That the association shall not deal in the products of nonmembers to an amount greater in value than such as are handled by it for members.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Cross References
Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967, association of producers as meaning associations referred to in this section, see section 2302 of this title.
“Cooperative association of producers” defined, see section 2 of this title.
Cooperative marketing, see sections 451 to 457 of this title.