Branstad, states lose challenge to California law giving chickens better living conditions

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – A challenge by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and other states to a California law giving chickens better living conditions was turned away by a federal appeals court.

According to a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, Branstad and plaintiffs from six states sought to block enforcement of California laws and regulations prescribing standards for the conditions under which chickens must be kept in order for their eggs to be sold in the state. Plaintiffs sought to block the laws before they took effect.

The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to establish parens patriae standing because: (1) they failed to articulate an interest apart from the interests of private egg producers, who could have filed an action on their own behalf; (2) the allegations about potential economic effects of the challenged laws, after implementation, were necessarily speculative; and (3) the allegations of discrimination were misplaced because the laws do not distinguish among eggs based on their state of origin.

In the 2008 general election, California voters adopted Proposition 2, which enacted new standards beginning on January 1, 2015, for housing farm animals within California including, as relevant here, egg-laying hens. Under Proposition 2, hens may not be confined for the majority of any day “in a manner that prevents [them] from: (a) Lying down, standing up, and fully extending [their] limbs; and (b) Turning around freely.”  A violation of these standards is punishable by a $1,000 fine or imprisonment of 180 days in county jail, or both.