Source: MEATINGPLACE, 11/10/11


U.S. Supreme Court justices who heard oral arguments in the case challenging California’s ban on the slaughter of non-ambulatory livestock seem to understand the issues at stake, a National Meat Association spokesman said Thursday.

The association is challenging a 2008 California law that prohibits the slaughter of non-ambulatory pigs, sheep, goats or cattle. Oral arguments were heard Wednesday in the lawsuit, National Meat Association v. Harris.

“We felt they understood the issues,” NMA spokesman Jeremy Russell told Meatingplace.

The Federal Meat Inspection Act says a state can't impose slaughterhouse protections "in addition to or different" from federal requirements. The National Meat Association argues the state violated this pre-emption rule.

“The justices seemed to understand the issue of federal pre-emption. The law is pretty clear really. It would take a real novel precedent-setting interpretation of the law to change that,” Russell said. “The bottom line is we don’t want a patchwork of different laws from state to state for our food safety. A level playing field for all – that is what the pre-emption provides.”

The San Francisco Chronicle, in its online edition, quoted Chief Justice John Roberts as saying: "When the federal law says you can (sell meat), that pre-empts the rule from the states that says you can't."
Justice Stephen Breyer, also speaking at the hearing, said California seemed to be imposing an "additional requirement (on) a federally inspected meat-packing facility," the Chronicle reported.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.