High court weighs California law on pigs, pork prices

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is weighing a California animal cruelty law that pork producers say could upend their industry and raise the cost of pork products nationwide. But on Tuesday the justices seemed to have bigger concerns beyond bacon. The issue with California’s law requiring more space for breeding pigs, pork producers say, is that it will force the $26-billion-a-year industry to change its practices even though pork is produced almost entirely outside California. During more than two hours of arguments, both conservative and liberal justices asked about the fate of other state laws with impacts beyond their borders.