Twelve states want the Supreme Court to axe California’s anti-confinement egg laws

Better make that back to the court we go—and this time with a bigger posse: Last week, 12 states banded together to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the “egg sales law,” alleging that it cost consumers upwards of $350 million in higher egg prices and is unconstitutional because it violates the interstate commerce clause—meaning that it’s preempted by federal law.This suit cites a study from a University of Missouri economist, which, the L.A. Times reported in a December 4 article, had found that “the national price of a dozen eggs has increased between 1.8% and 5.1% since January 2015 because of the California cage requirements.”Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (who is seeking the Republican nomination in Missouri’s 2018 senate election), called the regulations discriminatory against farmers, announcing in a December 4 press release that they are “a clear attempt by big-government proponents to impose job-killing regulations on Missouri.”In addition to Missouri—which was part of the 2014 complaint—Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin have joined the challenge.