Appeals Court Rejects Lawsuit Against California Egg Law
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit by six states challenging a California law that prohibits the sale off eggs from chickens that are not raised in accordance with strict space requirements.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that the states failed to show how the law would affect them and not just individual egg farmers. California voters approved a ballot initiative in 2008 that required that egg-laying hens in the state spend most of their day with enough space to allow them to lie down, stand up, turn around and fully extend their limbs.
In 2010, California legislators expanded the law to ban the sale of eggs from any hens that were not raised in compliance with the standard.
A call to the Missouri Attorney General's Office, which argued the case for the states, was not immediately returned.
