Biden Fights California For Bacon Rights In Proposition 12

The Biden administration and the state of California, which are usually staunch allies on a variety of environmental issues, will square off today in a Supreme Court case that will determine whether California has the right to impose stringent animal-welfare standards on pork produced outside the state.

California’s Proposition 12, a ballot measure approved by voters in 2018, imposed strict production standards on hog farmers and prohibited the sale of pork produced outside of those standards within the state. The Justice Department contends that the state ballot measure is unconstitutional because it violates the Dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits one state from discriminating against the commerce of another state or imposing undue burdens on interstate commerce.

The Department of Justice’s position on Prop 12 aligns it with the two groups that filed the lawsuit, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation. According to these organizations, California residents consume 15% of the nation’s pork products, with nearly 99.9% of those products coming from outside the state.

Forcing pork producers to adhere to California standards would give California the authority to impose unfair new costs on the industry and “transform the pork industry nationwide.”

They also claim that the California rule will add $350 million in new costs to producers and raise consumer prices at a time of high inflation.

The Department of Justice concurs that California “has regulated out-of-state activity in the service of an interest that is not a legitimate basis for regulation under our federal system of sovereign States.”

Biden’s Justice Department is also at odds with other Democrats, including New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, who filed a pro-California amicus brief with the court, and the Humane Society of the United States.