California voters flexed their regulatory power in 2018 when they approved a ballot measure requiring pork products sold in the state to come from the offspring of sows raised according to the Golden State’s animal welfare rules.
Lawyers for the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation will argue before the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Proposition 12 goes too far and upends a regulatory balance that justices established 52 years ago. Dubbed the bacon case, the decision could have far-reaching consequences. The case has the Biden administration pitted against California, and both sides’ supporters include attorneys general and prominent industry, animal rights, political and other groups.
California is fine with pork products as long as the pig is born to an adult female kept in a 24-square-foot space under conditions that allow the sow to turn around without touching her enclosure. Anything less is defined as keeping the animal in a “cruel manner.”
