The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied a challenge filed by six states to a law that requires humane treatment of hens that produce eggs sold in California, according to an Agri-Pulse report.
In 2008, California voters approved a proposition that stated hens in California may not be confined for the majority of any day in a manner than prevents them from moving around freely, such as to lay down, stand up, fully extend their limbs, or turn around freely. In 2011, California’s state legislature adopted the standards in a ballot measure for shell eggs sold in the state.
Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma filed the challenge arguing that California’s humane treatment laws are discriminatory “because they do not distinguish among eggs based on their state of origin.” The court did not accept the states arguments saying “there is no discrimination here, whether to the few or to the many.” “As noted, California egg farmers are subject to the same rules as egg farmers from all other states, including California itself.”
In addition, a summary prepared for the court said the states “failed to articulate an interest apart from the interests of private egg producers, who could have filed an action on their own behalf.” and that “the allegations about potential economic efforts of the challenged laws, after implementation , were necessarily speculative.”
