Attorney General Brenna Bird Leads Fight for Pork Producers at the United States Supreme Court

DES MOINES—Attorney General Brenna Bird is leading 24 states in a brief asking the United States Supreme Court to rule that Massachusetts’s radical pork ban is unconstitutional. 

Massachusetts’s “Question 3” pork ban prevents other states from selling pork in or transporting through Massachusetts if farmers do not comply with Massachusetts’s luxury hog-housing requirements. That means that even if Iowa-produced pork meets all Iowa and federal safety and quality standards, but not Massachusetts’s new restrictions, they cannot do business in that state. 

Massachusetts’s pork ban will have effects far beyond Massachusetts’s borders. Pork producers and family farmers across the country will face crippling costs that may force many to close shop. Families already facing skyrocketing prices for pork will see those prices continue to rise. The pork ban also sets a dangerous precedent that would allow states to upend markets across the nation to push their radical political agendas. 

“Massachusetts does not get to tell Iowans how to raise their pork,” said Attorney General Bird. “Iowa is the leading pork-producing state in the nation and is home to family farms that Iowans have passed down through families for generations. With this pork ban, Iowa farmers are left with two drastic options: pay the extreme costs to comply with red tape that could drive them out of business or be banned from selling their pork. Either option is a loss for Iowa’s hardworking family farmers and pork producers. Simply put, we want the Supreme Court to find that the Massachusetts pork ban is unconstitutional, because it is.” 

The states make the case that the Massachusetts pork ban violates the Constitution because states cannot pass laws that target raising hogs in other states.  

The Iowa-led coalition is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 

Read the full brief here.  

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For More Information:

Jen Green 

jen.green@ag.iowa.gov