WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of California over what it says is “burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and poultry products nationally in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
This lawsuit also names California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rob Bonta, state attorney general, as well as other California state officials.
“Americans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,” Pam Bondi, U.S. attorney general, said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will use the full extent of federal law to ensure that American families are free from oppressive regulatory burdens and restore American prosperity.”
The DOJ adds that the regulations and laws it is challenging, which includes California’s Proposition 12, are imposing cost on farmers that are having the effect of rising egg costs.
“These laws stand opposed to the Egg Products Inspection Act, which sets standards to ensure eggs and egg products are properly labeled and packaged and preempts state laws that impose additional regulatory hurdles,” the DOG said in a release.
“Bureaucratic red tape and unnecessary regulations implemented by the state of California have made the cost of everyday goods, like eggs, less affordable for Americans,” Brett Shumate, U.S. assistant attorney general, said. “The Department of Justice will work to free consumers from this regulatory burden and bring economic prosperity to families.”
In the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, it states that, “California’s codified purpose in prohibiting the sale of eggs that are produced through various accepted husbandry practices is purportedly to increase the quality and fitness for human consumption of eggs and egg products sold in California.”
“But California’s egg standards do not advance consumer welfare,” the lawsuit adds. “For example, with respect to California’s most recent voter initiative imposing new standards of egg quality, Proposition 12, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has stated in its regulatory analysis that despite the initiative’s purported concern for consumer ‘health and safety,’ the egg standards ‘are not based in specific peer-reviewed published scientific literature or accepted as standards within the scientific community to reduce human foodborne illness .. or other human or safety concerns.”
The lawsuit continues that California regulation, such as Prop 12, has led to increased prices for consumers.
Some groups, such as the Center for the Environment and Welfare, are praising this move from the DOJ.
“It is great to see the Trump administration taking decisive action to protect the country from California’s overreaching policies, but Americans facing high food costs cannot afford to wait for years of court appeals. Congress could — and should — pass legislation tomorrow to get us there sooner,” Jack Hubbard, CEW executive director, said. “Recent polling shows California voters now regret the passage of Proposition 12, and there is strong bipartisan support for a legislative fix to nullify California’s inflationary farm mandates.”
The CEW adds that the result of a poll it conducted in June of registered California voters showed 60 percent support a legislative fix to “misguided egg and pork restriction in order to lower prices.”
One of this recent action’s opposers is Wayne Pacelle, Animal Wellness Action, and Center for a Humane Economy president, who is also noted as one of the “key architects” to California’s Prop 12.
“This absurd lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice would do more than eviscerate mainstream animal welfare laws to stop the extreme confinement of laying hens,” Pacelle said in a statement. “It will also put American egg farmers on the chopping block. Eliminating animal welfare and food safety standards in the states will open the floodgates to allow cheap eggs from factory farms in Mexico to flood the U.S. market. Nearly half of all eggs produced in the United States are cage-free, and where are they supposed to go if all state laws requiring cage-free housing standards are eliminated. This is a headline-hunting action that is anti-farmer, anti-consumer, and anti-animal welfare.”
