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The U.S. Supreme Court at its March 25 conference agreed to hear a case brought by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) against California’s Proposition 12, which bans the sale of pork in the state from hogs born to sows that weren’t raised according to the state’s production standards, regardless of where these animals were raised.
NPPC argues that Prop. 12 violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate trade among the states and limits the ability of states to regulate commerce outside their borders.
The high court is taking up the case on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in July 2021 upheld a lower court ruling against the NPPC-AFBF lawsuit. The appeals court found that despite the organizations plausibly alleging that Prop. 12 “will have dramatic upstream effects and require pervasive changes to the pork industry nationwide,” 9th Circuit precedent didn’t allow the case to continue. That precedent, however, runs counter to numerous Supreme Court decisions and is in conflict with nearly every other federal circuit court.
NPPC and AFBF in the coming weeks will file their initial brief with the Supreme Court, which could hear oral arguments in the fall and could render a decision by the end of the year.
Nearly all pork currently produced in the United States fails to meet California’s standards. To continue selling pork to the nearly 40 million consumers who live in California, which represents about 15% of the U.S. pork market, pork producers would need to switch to alternative sow housing systems. Industry estimates for converting sow barns or building new ones to meet the Prop. 12 standards are in the billions of dollars.
March 28, 2022/ National Pork Producers Council/ United States.
https://nppc.org/
