Trump administration sues the state of Michigan over cage-free egg law

By Beth LeBlanc, bleblanc@detroitnews.com

The U.S. Division of Justice is suing the state of Michigan over its ban on eggs laid by caged chickens, arguing that it’s the federal authorities’s sole accountability to control eggs purchased and bought throughout state traces.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Trump administration named the state of Michigan, Legal professional Normal Dana Nessel and Michigan Division of Agriculture and Rural Improvement Director Tim Boring as defendants within the case, which the Justice Division says is pushed partly by cost-of-living will increase made worse by pointless laws like these in Michigan.

“The State of Michigan has contributed to the historic enhance in egg costs by imposing pointless purple tape on the interstate egg market,” in accordance with the grievance filed within the Western District of Michigan. “At concern right here is Michigan’s ban on the sale of eggs that don’t meet sure state-mandated standards.”

The case was assigned to U.S. District Choose Jane Beckering, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.

Michigan’s cage-free egg regulation went into impact on December 31, 2024, and requires eggs bought within the state to come back from chickens raised in cage-free housing programs, together with eggs imported into or out of the state on the market. The one exception to the regulation is the sale of eggs from farms with fewer than 3,000 laying hens.

Cage-free housing means chickens can roam freely in an indoor or out of doors surroundings, with the one permitted restrictions being exterior partitions, multi-level aviaries, and sufficient house for workers to look after the chickens whereas they’re on their ground house. The regulation additionally requires that these enclosures embody scratching areas, perches, nest bins and mud bathing areas.

Nationally, egg costs rose from $4.95 per dozen massive Grade A eggs in U.S. cities in January 2025 to $2.71 per dozen in December 2025, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, compiled by the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis.

Michigan ranks seventh within the nation in egg manufacturing, producing greater than 5 billion eggs per yr, a few of that are bought to business prospects who’ve requested caged eggs in recent times.

The regulation was handed greater than 15 years in the past in 2009 after which expanded in 2019 in response to a stress marketing campaign from the Humane Society, which threatened a poll initiative with stricter limits if lawmakers didn’t go cage-free laws.

The 2019 laws postponed implementation till December 31, 2024, which occurred to be in the course of a nationwide battle towards extremely pathogenic hen flu.

When the Senate handed the laws in 2019, Sen. Ed McBroom, an Higher Peninsula Republican, disagreed, arguing the measure would elevate the worth of eggs and unconstitutionally limit interstate commerce.

However Sen. Kevin Haley, a Republican from Lum in Lapeer County, stated the important thing measure “synchronizes Michigan’s hen housing regulation with state and nationwide retail and restaurant commitments to solely buy eggs from 100% cage-free farms by 2025.” The brand new regulation can be essential to “serving to our farmers meet trade calls for and stay aggressive in retail markets,” stated Daley, the invoice’s sponsor.

In its lawsuit Thursday, the Justice Division argued that in relation to interstate commerce, it’s the federal authorities’s sole accountability to control the inspection and high quality of eggs.

The lawsuit famous that Michigan could impose husbandry necessities on chickens inside its borders, however that the regulation, due to its impact on eggs imported from different states, conflicts with the federal authorities’s jurisdiction over interstate commerce.

The federal Egg Merchandise Inspection Act, handed by Congress in 1970, is meant to determine uniform egg requirements, the lawsuit says.

“Michigan’s ban on the sale of eggs with sure disqualifying traits acts as a substantive normal for eggs themselves – one which disqualifies a class of eggs from interstate commerce based mostly on state-imposed standards that federal regulation doesn’t acknowledge,” the lawsuit says. “The Supremacy Clause doesn’t allow such further authorities regulation.”

Proponents of the laws have lengthy sought to eradicate using “battery cages,” or stacked cages that give a hen about as a lot room to maneuver as an 8-by-11-inch sheet of paper.