Trump sues California over egg law, citing prices 

The Trump administration last week sued the state of California over its laws requiring eggs sold in the state to come from animals raised under certain conditions, prompting denunciations from animal welfare groups. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said, “The state of California has contributed to the historic rise in egg prices by imposing unnecessary red tape on the production of eggs.”

“Through a combination of voter initiatives, legislative enactments and regulations, California has effectively prevented farmers across the country from using a number of agricultural production methods which were in widespread use — and which helped keep eggs affordable,” the suit said.

The lawsuit said through the 1970 Egg Products Inspection Act, “Congress exercised its authority under the Supremacy Clause to expressly preempt state or local laws which impose requirements ‘in addition to’ or ‘different from’ those contained in EPIA. Thus, the Supremacy Clause does not permit California to inflate egg prices by imposing additional standards that regulate the quality of eggs, and the provisions at issue here are invalid.”

One of the laws it challenges is Proposition 12, the initiative that also requires that pork sold in the state come from animals raised under certain conditions, but the suit does not address pork prices or the housing conditions for pigs and hogs.

The National Pork Producers Council brought a case against that law to the Supreme Court, but the court said Prop 12 did not violate the commerce clause of the Constitution.

The Center for the Environment and Welfare praised the filing. 

“It is great to see the Trump administration taking decisive action to protect the country from California’s overreaching policies, but Americans facing high food costs cannot afford to wait for years of court appeals.”

“Congress could — and should — pass legislation tomorrow to get us there sooner,” said Jack Hubbard, executive director of CEW. “Recent polling shows California voters now regret the passage of Proposition 12, and there is strong bipartisan support for a legislative fix to nullify California’s inflationary farm mandates.”

But Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, said, “This absurd lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice would do more than eviscerate mainstream animal welfare laws to stop the extreme confinement of laying hens.”

“It will also put American egg farmers on the chopping block,” Pacelle said.

“Eliminating animal welfare and food safety standards in the states will open the floodgates to allow cheap eggs from factory farms in Mexico to flood the U.S. market. Nearly half of all eggs produced in the United States are cage-free, and where are they supposed to go if all state laws requiring cage-free housing standards are eliminated. This is a headline-hunting action that is anti-farmer, anti-consumer, and anti-animal welfare.”

Pacelle added, “The surge in egg prices within the last three years came about because of H5N1, and the USDA’s reckless and overreaching depopulation of laying hens.”

“It’s clear though that cage-free systems are less likely to produce disease spread than cage systems. The laying hen population is 330 million, and the hen population is rebuilding after the government killed more than 130 million birds in response to the spread of H5N1, or bird flu.

“There are no federal farm animal welfare laws that protect any animals on the farm in the United States, so there is no federal preemption at work when it comes to animal welfare on the farm,” Pacelle said.

Humane World for Animals and Humane World Action Fund, formerly called Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund, also criticized the suit.

“California has prohibited the sale of cruelly produced eggs for more than a decade — a law that has been upheld by courts at every level, including the Supreme Court,” said Sara Amundson, president of Humane World Action Fund. 

“Blaming 2025 egg prices on these established animal welfare standards shows that this case is about pure politics, not constitutional law,” Armundson said.

“The Trump-led Justice Department is now choosing to ignore voters in red, blue and purple states alike who have rejected the cruelty of confining hens in cages so small they can’t even spread their wings. To call these commonsense animal welfare laws a ‘regulatory burden’ is not just dishonest, it’s an insult to millions of Americans.”

“In response to voter and consumer demand, over 45% of the U.S. egg industry is already cage-free,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals.

“Rather than accepting this reality, the Department of Justice is using our tax dollars to fight a battle that’s already been settled,” Block said.

“This is a Justice Department misadventure that ignores the interests of the egg industry, retailers and consumers — all of whom have embraced the cage-free future. Avian influenza and other factors drove up egg prices, not animal welfare laws.”