An interesting look at Supreme Court decision making

This real-world lens is necessary to understand the big case argued in front of the Supreme Court this week: National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (that’s Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture). On the surface, National Pork Producers is about, well, pork production. Specifically, it’s about the horrific and inhumane way pregnant pigs are housed to reduce costs and maximize profits. The pork industry uses something called “gestation crates” to house pregnant sows: They are small cages measuring about two by seven feet, making it impossible for the 400–500 pound animals to do so much as turn around. They’re cruel, and researching them to get ready for this case has made me change what I look for on a package of bacon, because my stomach allows me to eat pigs but not torture them.

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I could give you lots of good arguments for why the pork producers are wrong. (Try to sell a dog bred in an out-of-state puppy mill to a pet store in California… I’ll wait.) But the arguments about why they are wrong—and about whether California’s law is constitutional—are almost irrelevant, because the Supreme Court isn’t treating this case as if it were just about pork or gestation crates or commerce. For the nine justices, this case is actually about abortion and LGBTQ rights and labor unions and environmental protection. It’s about whether a state can pass a law for what it perceives as purely moral reasons and then ban products made in other states that do not follow suit.

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If California can ban pork produced in ways it deems immoral, what’s to stop Texas from banning things it deems “immoral”—like fish provided by black mermaids or fruit picked by undocumented workers? These are not fanciful concerns made up to flummox first-year law students. Weakening the dormant commerce clause, even a little, could well result in MAGA states’ passing facially ridiculous laws in a race to see who can be first to ban products produced by organized labor. The threat is so great that the Biden administration weighed in on behalf of the pork industry, and urged the court to allow the lawsuit against California to go forward.

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At oral arguments, all nine justices struggled with the long-term implications of this case, with most of them appearing more concerned with something other than whether pigs should be tortured for pork and profit. Because the justices became untethered from the case in front of them, the arguments gave us a glimpse into what these nine lords want the most.

  The Nation

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...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.