Is California's chicken law causing an egg crisis in US? Trump thinks so!

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the state of California, alleging that its strict animal welfare regulations are driving up egg prices nationwide and violating federal law.

Filed Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles, the lawsuit contends that California's laws regulating how chickens are housed—particularly measures approved by voters in 2008 and 2018—conflict with the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970. That federal law gives the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services the authority to oversee egg safety standards and requires uniformity across states, the suit argues.

The lawsuit criticizes California's regulations as "unnecessary red tape" that restrict egg production and limit the supply of affordable eggs across the country. While California can impose rules within its own borders, the federal government says it cannot dictate how eggs are produced in other states if those eggs are sold in California.


The California Attorney General’s office has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

California’s regulations mandate that hens must have enough space to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs, and turn around freely. Supporters say the rules help reduce animal cruelty and improve food safety, but federal officials argue that only Washington has the legal authority to set national egg standards.

California’s egg laws have already withstood legal challenges. In 2014, six states—Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky, and Iowa—sued California over similar concerns but lost in both district court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld another California initiative that set space requirements for pigs, cows, and chickens, rejecting a challenge by pig farmers who claimed the law improperly affected out-of-state agriculture.