California Egg Law Challenge Struck Down

A federal appeals court last week ruled against six states challenging a California law placing restrictions on egg sales from other states. The 2008 ballot initiative approved by California voters set strict requirements for housing egg-laying hens. The court ruled that the states—Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa—failed to show how the law would impact them and not just individual egg farmers, upholding a lower court decision that dismissed the lawsuit. However, Food Safety News reports that while the three-judge panel affirmed the dismissal, they did so in a way that does not close the door on the dispute between California and the other egg-producing states, paving the way for future lawsuits. The next possible step in the case is for Midwestern egg producers to file a lawsuit on their own.