The State of Missouri is appealing to the the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to California's Proposition 2 law, which took effect in 2015.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, in a press release, stated that he has asked the high court to hear arguments in the state’s challenge to the California law, which requires that eggs produced and sold in the state are laid by hens that have adequate room to stand up, sit down, turn around and extend their limbs without touching another bird or the sides of the cage. Hawley said the law imposes onerous new regulations on Missouri poultry farmers and would drive up the cost of eggs for Missouri consumers.
“These regulations are unconstitutional,” Hawley said. “They will cost Missouri farmers tens of millions of dollars. They will cost Missouri families. And they will cost our state jobs.”
Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma are joining Hawley’s appeal.
Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst stated that his organization is supportive of Hawley’s case.
“This is a vital issue for Missouri farmers,” Hurst said. “If other states can tell Missouri how to farm, we will be in a world of hurt. I applaud the attorney general for standing up for Missouri’s farm families all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Earlier challenges to Proposition 2
This is not the first time Missouri has led a charge to challenge Proposition 2.
Hawley’s predecessor, Chris Koster, in 2014, filed a lawsuit that challenges the soon-to-be enacted California egg law. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Fresno, California. The same five states that are joining Hawley’s effort were also part of Koster’s challenge.
However, a federal judge threw out that suit in October 2014, saying the other states lacked legal standing because they could not show that California’s law does harm to farmers or citizens in other states.
The states appealed the ruling, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016 ruled that the plaintiff states lacked legal standing to challenge the law.
