Everybody wants to know what’s going to happen next with California Proposition 12. Based on questions asked during a Proposition 12 session at Iowa Pork Congress, the industry is anxious to hear back after the oral arguments presented before the Supreme Court of the United States in October.
“We’re still waiting,” said Michael Formica, the National Pork Producers Council’s chief legal strategist. “Initially, we were hopeful we’d get a decision in late January/early February, but the court had the controversial leak of the Dobbs decision last year and as a result, started conducting a big investigation into it. They just released the results of that investigation.”
Now, everything seems to be pushed back about a month, he said. Because of ongoing legal efforts, Formica’s comments were limited before the public crowd in Des Moines.
One attendee asked Formica, “What happens if we lose?”
Formica said, “If we lose, we lose. The dormant commerce clause essentially goes away. States can feel free to intrude on other states.”
If that happens, he expects the U.S. economy would largely be controlled by four states – New York, California, Florida and Texas.
“Every other state is too small to compete with them and the size of their markets,” he said.
For the pork industry, there is an injunction against Proposition 12 until July 1, so Proposition 12 would begin to take effect in California after that date.
If pork producers win, Formica said the case will likely go back to a district court where, depending on what the Supreme Court says, the industry will have to show how Proposition 12 has impacted and harmed the pork industry across the country.
While NPPC was hopeful the Supreme Court would agree to hear the case, Formica admits until it actually did so, no one really knew if the Supreme Court would take NPPC’s case.
“We worked really hard to get the case up there. We actually started the process of trying to get a case up to the Supreme Court even before Proposition 12 was passed. As we saw what was playing out in Massachusetts in 2016 with Question Three and where the vote was going,” he said. “We knew we needed the Supreme Court to step in and provide some clarity and guidance along the way. We started early on trying to plant those seeds and creating a pathway to get up there.”
Read more about Proposition 12.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
A HISTORICAL DAY: SCOTUS HEARS ORAL ARGUMENTS ON PROPOSITION 12
PROPOSITION 12 IS NOT THE WAY WE WANT TO CARE FOR ANIMALS, HAYS SAYS
WHY AGRICULTURE CAN’T IGNORE PROPOSITION 12 AND QUESTION 3
