Triumph Foods wants out from under Prop 12

After a federal judge earlier this year found the nearly decade-old Massachusetts Question 3 violates the U.S. Constitution, it was only a matter of time before California’s Proposition 12 would face a similar challenge.

Now, Triumph Foods, the successful Plaintiff in Massachusetts, has become the first processor to sue California over Prop 12.  Proposition 12 is the law that bans the sale of eggs and pork in California unless they come from farms operated under the state’s dictates.

The farmer-owned Triumph Foods is a leading processor of premium pork products.  Triumph is making claims never before pursued by any previous Plaintiff to Prop 12, and is expanding the challenge against Prop 12 by the U.S. Department of Justice, which has filed claims against Prop 12’s egg provisions. 

The 7-year-old Prop 12 and 9-year-old Question 3 are both “Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animal Acts” that prohibit battery cases for hens and gestation crates for pigs.  Producers that do not comply with various animal housing dictates are denied access to state markets.

Triumph’s new lawsuit builds upon the company’s approach against Massachusetts’ Question 3 (Q3), where Triumph was successful in obtaining an order from the district court striking down part of that state law for violations of the dormant Commerce Clause.  Triumph claims the same unconstitutional provision exists in Prop 12. 

The claims filed against Prop 12 include that the federal government already regulates Triumph Foods – and similar U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected facilities – and that states cannot add to and interfere with those regulated spaces when preempted by the authority of Congress.  

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 unanimously held in National Meat Ass’n. v. Harris that Congress has already enacted governing legislation and ruled that state laws that usurp the federal government’s role and disrupt our nation’s food supply are unconstitutional. 

“Congress has already acted and regulates pork production in our country,” said Matt England, President and CEO of Triumph Foods. “A national food supply chain depends on consistent regulation from the federal government, free from a patchwork of interfering state requirements.”

Earlier this year, the current Supreme Court opted not to accept the appeal of the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s challenge to Prop 12.  The San Francisco-based  U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had denied the IPPA case.

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