Follow California Proposition 12 SCOTUS Oral Arguments Live

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a case brought by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) against California’s Proposition 12, which bans the sale of pork from hogs born to sows that weren’t raised according to the state’s “arbitrary” production standards. 

Listen to the oral arguments live.

Since Proposition 12 was approved in November 2018, NPPC has waged a legal battle against the ballot initiative. NPPC argued at the U.S. district and appellate court levels that Proposition 12 violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate trade among the states and limits the ability of states to regulate commerce outside their borders.

The high court is taking up the case on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in July 2021 upheld a lower court ruling against the NPPC-AFBF lawsuit. The appeals court found that despite the organizations plausibly alleging that Proposition 12 “will have dramatic upstream effects and require pervasive changes to the pork industry nationwide,” 9th Circuit precedent didn’t allow the case to continue. That precedent, however, runs counter to numerous Supreme Court decisions and is in conflict with nearly every other federal circuit court, the organization said in a release.

"Animal welfare and maintaining consumer access to high-quality, affordable pork are top priorities for America's pig farmers," NPPC said on its website. 

Here are five reasons NPPC strongly opposes California Proposition 12:

1. It’s unconstitutional.
The ban on the sale of out-of-state pork is a restraint of interstate commerce and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

2. Imposes arbitrary standards.
The law is based on arbitrary standards that lack any scientific, technical, or agricultural basis.

3. Threatens animal welfare.
Implementing this law will reverse decades of progress in animal welfare and farm biosecurity and undermine the global competitiveness of the U.S. pork industry. It is unjustified and counterproductive to advancing animal health and safety – and jeopardizes sow safety.

4. Increases food prices and disrupts supply chains.
The cost to implement Prop 12 has been measured to be approximately $3,500/sow, a cost that farmers will need to pass onto to consumers at a time of record-high inflation.

5. Threaten producers’ livelihoods.
Financial investments and an ever-increasing patchwork of standards continues to create significant challenges for how producers operate and increasingly allows others to dictate how to raise pigs without any voice in the standards being imposed upon them.

"Not only is California Proposition 12 unconstitutional and threatens animal welfare and producers’ livelihoods, but the outcome will also establish how similar matters play out in the future for all intrastate economic activity across the U.S.," NPPC said Friday in Capital Update.

Stay tuned to Farm Journal's PORK for more information.