California‘s Proposition 12 has survived a challenge in a federal appeals court brought by the National Pork Producers Council (NPCC) and American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which alleged it imposed excessive costs on out-of-state pork producers who will have to comply with the law’s animal housing requirements, reports Agri-Pulse.
NPPC and AFBF argued that Prop 12 has an “impermissible extraterritorial effect,” but the appeals court cited a string of Supreme Court cases to say the “extraterritoriality principle” should only apply to state laws that are “price control or price affirmation statutes.”
“It is undisputed that Proposition 12 is neither a price-control nor price-affirmation statute, as it neither dictates the price of pork products nor ties the price of pork products sold in California to out-of-state prices,” the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 decision.
What is California Prop 12?
Proposition 12, set to begin implementation on Jan. 1, 2022, imposes what some claim as arbitrary animal housing standards that reach far outside of California's borders to farms across the country, and bans the sale of pork that does not meet those standards.
