The Supreme Court’s Decision To Duck a Foie Gras Case Is Bad News for Food Freedom: New at Reason

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it would not (yet) hear an appeal in a case challenging California’s unconstitutional and much-reviled foie gras ban. The case will now head back to U.S. District Court.

Culinary leaders—from California chefs to French foie gras producers—are aghast. So is Reason food columnist Baylen Linnekin, who wrote and submitted an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in this case—foie gras producers and sellers—on behalf of both the Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes Reason) and the Cato Institute, in which he urged the Supreme Court to take up the foie gras case.

Interfering with interstate commerce is exactly what these laws intend and what they do. The Supreme Court’s decision not to overturn these laws now means more states will pass them, and that could eventually see agricultural states retaliate with commerce-suffocating laws of their own. This week’s decision is a recipe for conflict.

View this article.