American Farm Bureau Federation senior counsel for public policy Travis Cushman explains the current situation regarding California's Prop 12 now that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
After nearly two months of waiting, the U.S. Supreme Court this week announced they would be hearing the case brought by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation challenging California’s Proposition 12 requiring additional space requirements for gestating sows. The state law seeks to ban the sale of pork from hogs that don’t meet what agriculture groups describe as the state’s arbitrary production standards, even if the pork was raised on farms outside of California.
The NPPC-AFBF case, which argues that Prop. 12 violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, limiting states’ ability to regulate commerce outside their borders, was finally granted certiorari March 25. NPPC and AFBF will file their initial brief with the Supreme Court in the coming weeks; the Justices could hear oral arguments in the fall and could render a decision by the end of the year.
In this episode we talk with Travis Cushman, Senior Counsel for Public Policy at the American Farm Bureau Federation. Cushman is one of the attorneys working on the case on behalf of the agriculture industry.
This episode is sponsored by United Animal Health, a leader in animal health and nutrition. You can learn more about United Animal Health and how they are working to advance animal science worldwide by visiting their website UnitedANH.com.