The U.S. Supreme Court acquitted her today. California who passed a law aimed at minimizing animal suffering on pig farms but angered producers of pork, bacon and other sausages.

“While the Constitution governs many important issues, the type of pork chop allowed to be sold in California is not one of them,” wrote Judge Neil Gorsuch, in his opinion, adopting a rather unusual tone.

The Supreme Court ruling, peppered with culinary references and descriptions of the living space of pigs, concerns a law passed in 2018 in the state of California following a popular initiative that led to a referendum on the issue. The law prohibits the sale in this state of pork from pigs raised in a very limited area.

The pig industry sued, accusing California of trying to impose its values ​​on other states. It should be noted that California produces only a very small portion of the pork consumed by its nearly 50 million inhabitants. Industry representatives argued that with the adoption of this law, the cost of production and, accordingly, the price of sausages, dried products and fish liver will increase. But mostly, they say, the law violates the US Constitution, which forbids each state from enacting laws that affect commercial transactions between them.

The case went to the Supreme Court, which rejected the pig farmers’ arguments. “We are being asked to create two new conditions that will limit the ability of states to regulate their internal market, and we reject this proposal,” Gorsuch wrote on behalf of the Court.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, Reuters.