On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that several major U.S. pork producers have requested the recusal of U.S. District Judge John Tunheim from an ongoing antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota federal court. The companies, including Clemson Foods, Seaboard Foods, Tyson Foods, Triumph Foods, and Smithfield Foods, filed a motion on April 28, 2025, citing an alleged conflict of interest involving one of the court’s law clerks.

The motion claims the clerk previously worked for three organizations involved in separate lawsuits against protein producers and has a pending job offer from a law firm that initiated a similar case. Additionally, the clerk reportedly posted on social media about a former employer suing one of the defendants, explicitly referencing the case. The companies argue that these circumstances raise questions about the judge’s impartiality, warranting recusal under federal law.

The request follows Judge Tunheim’s recent denial of summary judgment for most of the companies, with Hormel Foods being the only defendant to receive summary judgment. The pork producers have also asked the court to vacate the denial and reassign the motions to a new judge for review.

The lawsuit, filed in 2018 by a group of consumers, accuses the pork companies of violating antitrust laws, engaging in unfair competition, and unjust enrichment. It alleges that since 2009, the companies, which collectively control 80% of the wholesale pork market, conspired to fix prices by coordinating production and limiting output to drive up costs.

The companies first suspected a conflict after a November hearing, where they observed the clerk engaging in a friendly conversation and hugging the plaintiffs’ attorneys. After inquiring about the clerk’s prior involvement in related cases against defendant Agri Stats Inc., the companies received a sealed, three-page response from the court on April 15, 2025, though its contents remain redacted. The defendants notified the court of their intent to seek recusal ten days later.

 

 

Source: The Minnesota Star Tribune