California Slaughters Nation’s Porkers?

Have radical progressives become piggish in telling others what to do as California now tries to regulate all 50 States on how their farmers MUST feed their porkers before selling slaughtered remains to its quiche eaters?

As amazing as it sounds, the WSJ op ed draws attention to a key case now being considered by the US Supreme Court. Later this year, the Justices will either finally coral the over-reaching Golden State’s legislature or let it go hog wild in saying there are no limits to how they can regulate “interstate commerce” under the federal Constitution. (See National Pork Producers Council v Ross.) As it so happens, we’re told, “California voters in 2018 approved a ballot initiative that established minimum confinement standards for farm animals sold as meat in the state. The law effectively requires that adult female pigs be housed in large group pens even though nearly all hog farmers keep them in individual pens, in part to prevent disease from spreading.”

Frankly, I don’t get why Californians would give an oink let alone hoot. I would think individual houses for the pigs among them as well as on the dinner table would be preferrable to eating them after being squeezed into crowded multi-family housing. Maybe it has something to do with their preference for Section 8 housing for humans and they are trying to “seed” the concept among the nation’s entire farm community. Whatever. As the editors remind, “Under the Court’s precedents, a state law violates the Commerce Clause if its “practical effect” is to “control [commercial] conduct beyond” its own borders. Wouldn’t even Porky Pig in Disneyland blush at this extra-territorial power grab?

Davd Soul