Copper & Brass Fabricators Council, Inc. v. Department of the Treasury

PALMIERI, District Judge:

Appellant, a trade association of copper and brass fabricating companies, challenges the Treasury Department’s decision to decrease the copper content of the penny from 95% copper and 5% zinc to a copper-plated zinc blank containing 2.4% copper and 97.6% zinc. This decision was made pursuant to 31 U.S.C. § 317(b) (1976),1 which was enact*952ed by Congress in 1974 in response to rising copper prices and the withdrawal from circulation of substantial quantities of pennies as a result of the public hoarding which followed. The district court, 524 F.Supp. 945, held that while…