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Rachel Larris, [email protected], 202-994-6460
WASHINGTON (October 10, 2022) — On Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, which will decide if Californians are able to require higher welfare standards for farm animals that are raised in other states if products from those animals are to be sold in California. Pork producers are challenging a California ballot initiative that was passed in 2018 which mandates that pregnant sows raised for pork production that are kept in “gestation crates” must have at least 24 square feet of floor space – nearly double the amount that most now get.
Kathy Hessler is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School, and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative.
Watch a clip of Professor Hessler discussing the importance of the upcoming decision in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross:
“There are a lot of really important legal questions in this case. One is do the voters of California get to choose how the animals that are sold inside the state are treated? Does the state of California get to decide not to have anti-competitive impacts on the producers from their state? Those are pretty important questions. It’s really clear that voters should have the opportunity to say the welfare of animals matter to them when they’re being raised for these products. And it also should be appropriate for Californians to say we don’t want our producers to be at a competitive disadvantage. It’s also clear the courts have been worried when states have passed a law that has extra-territorial effect, that it shouldn’t have too big a burden outside the state. And so that’s one of the questions this Court will decide…So right now we have a case that pits animal welfare versus economic benefit. And that’s a position the Court hasn’t been in before so this is a new issue for the Supreme Court to take up."