After a federal judge earlier this year found that Massachusetts' nearly decade-old Proposition 3 violated the U.S. Constitution, it was only a matter of time before California's Proposition 12 faced a similar challenge.
Now Triumph Foods, a successful plaintiff in Massachusetts, has become the first processor to sue California under Proposition 12. Proposition 12 is a law that prohibits the sale of eggs and pork in California unless they come from farms that operate under state dictates.
Farmer-owned Triumph Foods is a leading manufacturer of premium pork products. Triumph is making claims that have never been brought before by any previous Proposition 12 plaintiff and is expanding the challenge to Proposition 12 by the U.S. Department of Justice, which has filed lawsuits challenging Proposition 12's egg provisions.
Proposition 12, 7 years old, and Question 3, 9 years old, are “Farm Animal Cruelty Prevention Acts” that prohibit the use of chicken batteries and gestation crates for hogs. Producers who do not comply with various animal welfare requirements are denied access to government markets.
Triumph's new lawsuit builds on the company's approach to Massachusetts Question 3 (Q3), where Triumph successfully obtained a district court order striking down part of the state's law for violating a dormant commerce clause. Triumph argues that Proposition 12 contains the same unconstitutional provision.
Claims filed against Proposition 12 include that the federal government already regulates Triumph Foods—and similar businesses inspected by the USDA—and that states cannot expand or interfere with those regulated spaces if congressional authority preempts them.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously accepted the National Meat Association's decision in 2011. v. Harris, that Congress has already enacted governing legislation and held that state laws that usurp the role of the federal government and interfere with our nation's food supply are unconstitutional.
“Congress has already acted and is regulating our nation's pork production,” said Matt England, president and CEO of Triumph Foods. “The nation's food supply chain depends on consistent regulation by the federal government, free from interfering state regulations.”
Earlier this year, the current Supreme Court decided not to hear the Iowa Pork Producers Association's appeal of Proposition 12. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected the IPPA's claim.
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