15 May—Last Friday, in a surprising 5-to-4 decision, a Supreme Court majority ruled that it was okay for California’s Proposition 12 to make it a criminal offense and civil violation to sell whole pork meat in that state unless the pig it comes from is born to a sow housed in at least 24 square feet of space and in conditions that allow the sow to turn around without touching an enclosure—a gestation crate—no matter where that pork comes from.

Twenty-four square feet isn’t that big, especially for a pregnant sow, but most pregnant sows on commercial pig farms are forced to survive in cages barely bigger than their bodies for almost their whole lives. This is standard practice in modern pork production. So scummy pig producers insist that giving the poor sows enough space to lie down, stand up, turn around, and stretch their limbs is a dire threat to their livelihood. Good. Great. Fantastic. They should all go out of business.

It’s not at all unreasonable to expect—make that demand—that animals be treated humanely. Unless it eats into the profits of the serial animal abusers, of course. So the abusive pork producers, having failed to get satisfaction in the federal trial and appellate courts on the left coast, brought the appeal east to the Supreme Court, claiming Prop 12 violates the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Solicitor General of the United States, representing the predictably (and customarily) inept Biden administration, came down on the side of the Interstate Commerce Clause and the pork producers, by the way.

Only certain pork products the out-of-state knackers and packers—as well as those in the state—choose to supply to California have to comply with Prop 12. The animal abusers are still free to make as many pork products as they want and sell them to markets outside of California. And it’s not generally known nor publicized by either side that almost half of pork products—like ground, precooked, and deli—aren’t even affected by Prop 12.

Proposition 12 is a ballot measure initiated in 2018 by California voters rather than legislators. (That can’t happen in Connecticut, of course, as long as the whores of Hartford refuse to allow state-wide direct democracy—voter initiatives. Nor can elected officials in Connecticut be recalled. Further proof that this state’s political whores protect themselves first and foremost. Apologies to whores, as usual.)

Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said, “We’re delighted that the Supreme Court has upheld California Proposition 12—the the nation’s strongest farm animal welfare law—and made clear that preventing animal cruelty and protecting public health are core functions of our state governments. We are grateful to our many outstanding allies who helped make Proposition 12 a success. We won’t stop fighting until the pork industry ends its cruel, reckless practice of confining mother pigs in cages so small they can’t even turn around. It’s astonishing that pork industry leaders would waste so much time and money on fighting this commonsense step to prevent products of relentless, unbearable animal suffering from being sold in California.”

It’s depressing, to say the least, that, as Kitty Block says, Prop 12 is the nation’s strongest farm animal welfare law. It’s a small step, but at least a step in the right direction. The pork industry certainly deserves what’s been called its significant loss, however insignificant it may really be. Pro-cruelty groups claim that with the California law being upheld, it won’t be long before other states adopt their own laws making it difficult for producers to meet a plethora of requirements that will lead to higher costs nationwide for pork chops and bacon.

Let’s hope so. It’s about time. Maybe that will drive more people to plant-based products, which as things stand now cost more than the cruelty-based alternatives.

So the five justices in the majority were conservatives Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett, and liberals Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. (We shouldn’t have to think of SCOTUS justices—or any judges—as anything but unbiased, nonpartisan legal authorities. Yeah, right.)

Justice Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion: “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list. … What goods belong in our stores? Usually, consumer demand and local laws supply some of the answers. … Companies that choose to sell products in various states must normally comply with the laws of those various states. Assuredly, under this court’s dormant Commerce Clause decisions, no state may use its laws to discriminate purposefully against out-of-state economic interests. But the pork producers do not suggest that California’s law offends this principle.”

Pork producers defended abuse and cruelty, arguing that 72 percent of farmers use individual pens for sows that do not allow them to turn around and that even farmers who house sows in larger group pens do not provide the space California would require. That obtuse defense is really an admission of guilt, an indictment of the whole pork—and factory farm—industry. Those goddamn sadistic assholes, motivated by nothing but profit and cruelty, should themselves be confined to minuscule cells and then slaughtered inhumanely after they’ve involuntarily served their unconscionable purpose . . .