The Supreme Court issued a major ruling Thursday upholding a California animal-cruelty law and therefore the authority of state and local governments to regulate what’s sold within their borders. Although the justices were splintered over the proper reasoning and disposition of the case, the ruling rejected an argument that would have greatly weakened states’ power to protect their residents from pollution and much more.
The case involved a California initiative, Proposition 12, that forbids the sale of meat from pigs that are “confined in a cruel manner.” Overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018, the law defines confinement as “cruel” if it prevents a pig from “lying down, standing up, fully extending [its] limbs, or turning around freely.”
The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation challenged the law under an important but relatively arcane principle of constitutional law known as the “dormant commerce clause.” It provides that state and local laws are unconstitutional if they place an excessive burden on interstate commerce. The Constitution doesn’t say that, but the Supreme Court has articulated and applied the doctrine since early in the nation’s history.
Trade barriers among the states were a major impetus for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. States with ports charged landlocked states high fees to access them, for example, provoking retaliation from those states. The idea behind the dormant commerce clause, inferred from Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce under Article 1, is that free trade among the states is essential and that every producer should have access to all domestic markets.
Based on that principle, the pork producers alleged that Proposition 12 violates the Constitution by impermissibly burdening interstate commerce. Most of the pork sold in California is produced out of state, much of it in Iowa, so the plaintiffs claimed the state was unconstitutionally attempting…