From WATTAgNet:
The United States Supreme Court has extended a deadline to Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to file an appeal of an earlier ruling that challenges California’s Proposition 2 law.
Hawley announced in February that he would challenge the ruling, which stated that California could impose Proposition 2 requirements for egg farms that produce or sell eggs in the state. According to the law, eggs produced and sold in California must be 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.
The court agreed to extend the filing deadline to April 24.
Hawley argues that the Proposition 2 regulations are unconstitutional and that it will add extra burdens to Missouri farmers and how they raise their hens.
Although Hawley, a Republican, also decried Proposition 2 as “an attempt by big-government liberals to impose job-killing regulation on Missouri,” earlier legal action opposing Proposition 2 was taken by Hawley’s predecessor, Chris Koster, a Democrat.
When Koster challenged the law, a federal judge dismissed the case, saying the other states lacked legal standing because they could not show that California’s law did not harm farmers or citizens in other states. A federal appeals court upheld that ruling.
Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama all joined in Koster’s lawsuit, and have agreed to do so with Hawley’s. Those states’ attorneys general represent a mixture of Republicans and Democrats.
Proposition 2 was approved by California voters in 2008 and went into effect in 2015.
U.S. Supreme Court grants additional time for Missouri to appeal egg case
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri's attorney general has been granted additional time to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court against California laws and regulations that don't allow the sale of eggs from chickens too closely confined.
