The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in an industry challenge to the constitutionality of a California animal welfare law in a case that could undermine the power of states to regulate a range of issues within their own borders.
The industry groups have argued that the measure, called Proposition 12, violates a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, by requiring out-of-state producers to comply or face a California sales ban. A legal doctrine called the “dormant” Commerce Clause bars states from passing laws discriminating against commerce in other states.
Proponents of the law disagree, saying California has the right to set standards for products sold to its consumers regardless of where these are produced. President Joe Biden’s administration has sided with the pork producers, saying in a Supreme Court brief that states cannot ban products “that pose no threat to public health or safety based on philosophical objections.”
Sixteen liberal U.S. senators, including both of California’s, had urged Biden’s administration to back the law. They wrote that a ruling endorsing the industry’s Commerce Clause position “could allow large, multi-state corporations to evade numerous state laws that focus on harms to their constituents, including those addressing wildlife trafficking, climate change, renewable energy, stolen property trafficking and labor abuses.