The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation against California’s Proposition 12. 

The law bans the sale of pork from hogs born to sows that weren’t raised according to the state’s “arbitrary” production standards. 

NPPC President Terry Wolters says, “We are extremely pleased that the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of Proposition 12.” 

NPPC has waged a legal battle against the ballot initiative since it was approved in November 2018, arguing at the U.S. district and appellate court levels that Prop. 12 violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate trade among the states and limits the ability of states to regulate commerce outside their borders. 

The high court is taking up the case on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in July upheld a lower court ruling against the NPPC-AFBF lawsuit.

(Story Courtesy of the NAFB News Service)