Pork Industry Waits for Supreme Court Decision on Prop 12

The U.S. pork industry is anxiously awaiting a Supreme Court decision on a lawsuit filed against California’s Prop 12. Michael Formica (for-MY-kah), chief legal strategist for the National Pork Producers Council, says he’s hopeful a decision will come sooner than later.

“I hope so. We wait. Every morning, I wake up and is today going to be the day, and so far it hasn't," said Formica. "But we're not the only case that's been waiting. The WOTUS case has been out there for a while. By this point in time, they should have released 40 cases. They've released nine decisions, so they're very slow.”

He says the upcoming Supreme Court decision is vital for almost every segment of agriculture.

“It's vitally important for anyone in agriculture, but more so, I think it's vitally important for anyone in the U.S. because we all make a choice to live where we live," said Formica. "And with that, comes a realization that we're governed by our local elected officials. What Proposition 12 is doing is saying your local elected officials have no say in this. Whatever they want, whatever system of government, whatever laws you and your neighbors decided to live under, they are irrelevant. Gavin Newsom and the state of California can send their police authorities far outside of California, inspect your farm, and tell you how to run your operation.”

California may be opening itself up to retaliation from other states if Prop 12 is upheld by the Supreme Court.

“There is that risk, and this came up during oral arguments at the court," said Formica. "What if Iowa wanted to do something? What if Montana wants to do something? The problem is a state like Iowa, a state like Wisconsin, there simply isn't a large enough market there, and California knows that. California has about 40 million people, and so they feel entitled to throw their weight around. If we lose, what we're actually looking at is a situation where you have four states control the entire country. You have California and New York on the left, and you have Texas and Florida on the right, and all of our national policies will be dictated by laws that are enacted in those four states. And that's not a situation anyone wants to live in.”

Source: NAFB