Missouri v. Harris (Ninth Circuit)

We filed an amicus brief for the American Farm Bureau Federation supporting a constitutional challenge to a California state law requiring out-of-state egg producers to discard their existing cage systems and undertake large capital costs as a condition of selling eggs in California. Egg-producing states filed suit to enjoin AB1437, which imposes minimum hen mobility and enclosure requirements that exceed those in conventional cage systems, but the district court held that the plaintiff States lack standing. Our brief explains why AB1437 imposes broad-based economic harm to the egg industry and egg-consuming public in other states, given the transition costs for egg producers and the resulting effects on the interstate market for eggs. That harm is precisely the sort of economic injury that States may use parens patriae standing to try to prevent.  The brief also explains why AB1437 is unconstitutional on the merits.