The ranchers want to keep the federal government from disclosing the identities of those using lethal predator control devices.
Activists say the public has a right to know whenever government funds are involved.
Attorneys for the Texas Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau Federation and three unnamed ranchers filed the lawsuit against USDA, seeking to make permanent an injunction against disclosure. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith of Waco, Texas, will rule on the issue. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the information contained in USDA records is nobody's business but their own. Our position has not changed. It's still a privacy issue.