Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of California’s ballot initiative to prohibit pork being sold that originated from piggies born in farrowing crates.

            While I’ve never been a fan of increased government regulations, I consider this a poke in the eye to the industrial pork industry and a salute to states’ rights.  Finally.

            The commercial pork and food industry aligned against the measure, suggesting it put undue hardship on Iowa farmers if California wouldn’t buy their pork.  In general, the opposition attacked the initiative as being unfriendly to farmers. 

            Although we now have as many prison inmates as farmers, the nation by and large wants farmers to be successful.  Pulling the “hurt farmers” card casts a wide halo in lobbying circles.  Of course, the industry argues vehemently that the farrowing crates, used extensively in factory farms, protect piggies from the sows’ missteps.  

            Anyone who has farrowed pigs in a natural setting knows about sows accidently stepping on piggies.  And yes, when that happens, the piggie dies.  However, maternal nurturing is highly heritable and people who believe in the dignity of pigs, over time, select for careful mothers.  But in this post, I don’t want to get into the weeds of whether it’s better to lose an occasional piggie to a mother’s carelessness or lock her up in a crate for her entire life where she can’t even turn around.  

            The big win here is that we finally have a court willing to stay out of arenas the Constitution gives the Federal government no power to manipulate.  One of the reasons our nation is as divided and the atmosphere as rancorous as it is, is because for the last century and a half we’ve taken a jackhammer to the Constitution’s fence guarding state authority.

            What was intended to be a multi-state experiment, where different states tried different policies, has become a winner-take-all tyranny.  With those high stakes, each argument, each debate, each policy becomes much more impactful than it would were it relegated to state status.  The Constitution is a shackle on the escape of power-mongers at the federal level who constantly challenge their boundaries.

            With this initiative, California will limit itself to pork from sows who can turn around.  Either more farmers in the state will begin farrowing pigs under compliance, more farmers outside the state will change their ways, or Californians won’t eat much pork.  Any of those options is fine with me.

            What I’m celebrating is that finally we have a SCOTUS that’s willing to say:  “the Constitution does not give us the authority to meddle in many areas.”   At the state level, all of us have far more lobby power; but the federal level is intimidating.  If our nation followed the Constitution, we would not have a Dept. of Energy, a USDA, an FDA, a HUD, OSHA, EEOC, Dept. of Education and many others.

            If we really want unity, we need to quit trying to unite on every little thing in life.  The best way to preserve unity is to allow different opinions and policies to flourish in order to germinate innovation.  Hence, the multi-state vision of our founders and the Constitution.

            If you could pluck away one current power from the federal government and remand it to state control, what agency or issue would it be?    

Big thanks to our friends at Millpond Photography for this photo!