The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of California in July, alleging that a combination of its “voter initiatives, legislative enactments, and regulations” have contributed to higher egg prices. In particular, the legal challenge singles out California’s Proposition 12 (passed by nearly 63 percent of the state’s voters in 2018), which prohibits the in-state sale of eggs from hens kept in cages or enclosures that do not comply with specific space requirements. The suit follows threats made by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in February that the Trump administration would seek to “remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible.”
The lawsuit does not mention the effect on egg prices of the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (aka bird flu; see previous page) that has resulted in the destruction of tens of millions of egg-laying hens since 2022 and, in turn, caused a significant decrease in the nation’s egg supply. Indeed, the June update to the USDA’s Food Price Outlook—published just two weeks before the lawsuit was filed—continued to indicate that bird flu “contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production.” (What this official forecast fails to mention is that the outbreak is arguably exacerbated by a lack of proper regulation concerning the crowded conditions at egg mega-farms: see AWI Quarterly, spring 2025.)
The DOJ’s complaint also makes no mention of the recent US Supreme Court decision rejecting a claim by the National Pork Producers Council that Proposition 12 imposed an unconstitutional burden on interstate trade. The administration is arguing instead that the state law, as it pertains to eggs, is preempted by the federal Egg Products Inspection Act, which governs federal egg inspection and food safety standards for eggs. How the courts will ultimately decide the case remains an open question. Another question is whether this latest attack on a voter-approved farmed animal welfare law is motivated primarily by concern for the pocketbooks of those voters or by a desire to line the deeper pockets of out-of-state industrial agriculture operations.