Eric Schmitt, Attorney General of Missouri has filed an Amicus brief in the appeal brought by the National Pork Producers Council against the State of California with regard to the constitutionality of California Proposition #12. The appeal follows an adverse ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the ballot-enacted law.
The Brief includes the statement, “California Proposition #12 is a paradigm of unconstitutional extra-territorial regulation: it requires hog, chicken and veal-calf farmers in every state to follow California’s animal-confinement rules on pain of exclusion from the market in California”. The brief continued, “Since most of California’s meat comes from out-of-state, Proposition #12 necessarily regulates not only California grocers but also the economic action and transactions of farmers, slaughters, meat packers, shippers and wholesalers in other states.”
The brief refutes the contention that Proposition #12 is based on promoting food safety. There is no scientific evidence that confinement of either poultry or hogs has any effect on foodborne disease.
It is expected that the Supreme Court of the United States will rule on the constitutionality of Proposition #12 with narrow focus on the right of a specific state to impede interstate commerce. There are precedents regarding restrictions on interstate movement that relate specifically to preventing spread of animal and plant diseases. Proposition #12 is essentially a welfare issue with the implication that caged housing contributes to dissemination of salmonellosis as a spurious argument. The pork industry is especially impacted since only 25 percent of sows are housed at 24 square feet with the remainder still in gestation stalls.
Attorney General Schmitt noted, “California is attempting to impose their will on Missouri farmers and ranchers by threating to deny entry into the California market if those farmers and ranchers don’t comply with their pointless regulations.”
Oral arguments will be heard on October 11th with a subsequent ruling at a future date.