The U.S. Supreme Court will review the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding a California ballot initiative that banned in-state sales of pork from sows kept in confined housing.

The law, Proposition 12, a 2018 ballot measure that was approved by more than 60 percent of the state’s voters, was challenged by two trade groups that said it interfered with interstate commerce and sound business practices.

“Almost no sow farmers in the country satisfy Proposition 12’s requirements, and most believe that those requirements would harm their animals, employees and operations,” lawyers for the two groups — the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation — told the justices in their petition for review.

The groups say the law illegally imposes most of the costs of compliance on out-of-state farmers, in violation of the Constitution’s dormant commerce clause.

The Ninth Circuit in July upheld a California federal district judge’s decision to dismiss the case, saying the law correctly regulates in-state and out-of-state actions in the same way.

NY Times Story HERE.

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