Missouri sues California over chicken regulations

Washington Post ^ | 02/04/2014 | Reid Wilson

[Rusty0604]

Whichever came first, both the chicken and the egg will be subject to a forthcoming federal lawsuit. California voters in 2008 passed a ballot initiative that require larger enclosures for egg-laying hens. Farmers in California worried the new rules, which would increase their costs, would put them at a competitive disadvantage with egg farms in other states, so the state legislature passed a measure in 2010 to require out-of-state producers to comply with California rules.

That, Koster says, is unfair to his state’s egg producers.

“If California legislators are permitted to mandate the size of chicken coops on Missouri farms, they may just as easily demand that Missouri soybeans be harvested by hand or that Missouri corn be transported by solar-powered trucks,” Koster said in a statement.

Big agricultural interests backed an amendment to the farm bill, authored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), that would have superseded state laws that set local standards for production; the amendment, which is not included in the final version of the farm bill, was aimed squarely at California regulations.

[Amendment10]

California voters in 2008 passed a ballot initiative that require larger enclosures for egg-laying hens.

I have never heard of such an initiative and I'll leave it at that.

[BfloGuy]

If California legislators are permitted to mandate the size of chicken coops on Missouri farms, they may just as easily demand that Missouri soybeans be harvested by hand or that Missouri corn be transported by solar-powered trucks,” Koster said in a statement.

It's time California was called out on this. Because of its huge population, it has succeeded in cowing businesses into bowing to its will.

Maybe Congress could start to really regulate interstate commerce. Heh, I know.

Ain't gonna happen.

[MeganC]

California cannot reach into another state to regulate their methods of production.

My family moved to Wyoming in 2010. That didn't stop two armed agents of the California Franchise Tax Board from showing up in our front yard in 2012 to demand that we prove we lived in Wyoming or else pay back taxes to California. We had to call the Park County Sheriff's Department who told the FTB to leave and never come back.

California is also still trying to fight the Gilbert Hyatt case (Google it) where the CA FTB raided a home in Nevada without a valid warrant thirty years ago. Their arrogance has no limit and no boundary. Literally.

[MeganC]

The egg laying bill was CA Proposition 2.

[Rusty0604]

I’m just afraid that Congress would just mirror CA regulations, or try too.
Maybe Obama could just sign an executive order on the size of chicken coops!

[John Valentine]

But they can ban the incoming eggs.

Perhaps, but only on the basis of some physical characteristic of the eggs, not on how their mothers were treated in their home state. Regulation of interstate commerce is the sole responsibility of the Federal Government for just this reason; States are NOT to build trade barriers against each other.

[John Valentine]

The Franchise Tax Board is an archetypal overreaching government agency. I have known them to freeze bank accounts of people who have NEVER lived in or even visited California, simply because their employer was headquartered there.

Their arrogance has no limit and no boundary. Literally.

You have that assessment right on the money.

[ForAmerica]

Yeah and why are most of the chickens white?

Because they have a job, lol!