On April 27, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging California’s Proposition 12, which established new standards for confinement of certain farm animals and bans the sale of products that do not comply. Specifically, Proposition 12 requires that all eggs sold in the state come from cage-free hens by 2022, and it also bans the sale of pork and veal in California from farm animals raised in cages that do not meet new minimum size requirements. The court rejected claims by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (Farm Bureau) that the animal welfare standards set by Prop 12 are unconstitutional.

In the lawsuit, the NPPC and Farm Bureau argued that Proposition 12 violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it would force out-of-state hog farmers who sell pork to California to meet the new space requirements, thus violating the extraterritorial principle by regulating wholly out-of-state conduct and imposing a substantial burden on interstate commerce. Iowa, Ohio, Texas, and several other states and industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, backed the complaint, which was filed in December 2019.

U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan disagreed with the NPPC and Farm Bureau stating that “a statute that applies both to California entities and out-of-state entities does not target wholly extraterritorial activity.” He further held that even when a statute has extraterritorial effects it passes Commerce Clause muster when those effects result from the regulation of in-state conduct. A statute violates the extraterritorial principle when it is directed at interstate commerce only, which was not the case here. Proposition 12 does not require uniform practices throughout the entire country, but rather only requires that producers who sell directly to California follow the regulations.

Judge Whelan also rejected the claim that Proposition 12 places a substantial burden on interstate commerce: “[a]lthough Proposition 12’s regulations may burden pork producers and result in a less efficient mode of operation, there is no burden on interstate commerce merely because it is less profitable than a preferred method of operation.”

The court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss. The NPPC and Farm Bureau have 14 days to file an amended pleading.