Thirteen agricultural states filed suit in U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of overturning a Massachusetts law that effectively bans the sale of eggs, pork, and veal produced by farms that use “battery” cages for hens, sow crates in hog operations, and veal-calf stalls. Three other states, including California, have similar rules.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, who organized the suit, said Massachusetts was unconstitutionally imposing its farming preferences on other states. “States should not erect barriers to the free flow of products from other states,” he said. Massachusetts voters approved the livestock welfare rules by a 3-to-1 margin in a 2016 referendum. The rules require Massachusetts farmers to allow enough room for animals to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs, and require foods from outside the state to meet the same standards.
A band of states is also challenging California’s animal welfare standards under similar arguments — that the Constitution puts the federal government in charge of interstate commerce. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the landmark California law that says table eggs shipped into the state must come from farms that give hens enough room to move around. Judges at the U.S. district and appellate court level ruled against the six egg-producing states that brought the suit.