One week after lawsuits challenging a Massachusetts law similar to the Proposition 12 law in California were stayed, a federal court issued a separate stay order to block enforcement of Question 3 for now.
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted a joint motion stay enforcement of Question 3 until 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court decides a similar legal challenge to California’s Prop 12 rules, according to court filings. Question 3 — originally passed in 2016 — prohibits the sale of whole pork meat in Massachusetts that come from hogs that were raised in enclosures that do not meet new Massachusetts state standards.
It was scheduled to go into effect Aug. 15 and was the subject of a lawsuit filed Aug. 3 by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, among other related regional agencies. The plaintiffs last week agreed to hold off action on their suit until the NPPC’s challenge to California’s Prop 12 is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The highest court in the land ended its session as scheduled at the end of June and is expected to resume work on Oct. 3, the traditional first Monday in October. The NPPC case against Prop 12 currently is scheduled to be argued in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11, according to the latest court documents released this summer. However, there is no firm timetable on when any decisions by the Supreme Court on the Prop 12 issue can be expected.