{"id":1698,"date":"2026-01-28T17:53:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/trump-doj-sues-michigan-to-overturn-cage-free-egg-law\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T17:53:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:53:05","slug":"trump-doj-sues-michigan-to-overturn-cage-free-egg-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/trump-doj-sues-michigan-to-overturn-cage-free-egg-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump DOJ Sues Michigan to Overturn Cage-Free Egg\u00a0Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>January 28, 2026<\/b> \u2013 The Trump administration is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gongwer.com\/public\/EGGLAWSUIT-12326.pdf\">suing Michigan<\/a> to overturn a law that bans cages on egg farms in the state and mandates all eggs sold in the state come from cage-free systems. It filed <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/07\/10\/trump-administration-sues-california-over-cage-free-egg-laws\/\">a similar lawsuit<\/a> against California in July of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In both complaints, Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers make the case that the cage-free egg laws have raised prices and that a federal law, the Egg Products Inspection Act, preempts state laws. \u201cIt is the prerogative of the federal government alone to regulate the quality and inspection of eggs in interstate commerce,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.website-files.com\/61ae554218623d80f13c84ea\/66c39896cf80f3ec281e0870_MAPI%20Egg%20Industry%20Info%20Sheet.pdf\">ranks<\/a> seventh in the country for egg production, according to Michigan Allied Poultry Industries, with its farms producing about 5 billion eggs each year. About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenstonefcs.com\/resources\/open-fields-blog\/2022\/12082022-commodity-update-poultry-outlook\">75 percent<\/a> have completed the transition to cage-free systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis lawsuit disregards settled law, ignores industry realities, and does nothing to address the real challenges facing egg producers and consumers alike,\u201d Wayne Pacelle, president of animal welfare advocacy group Animal Wellness Action, said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/animalwellnessaction.org\/justice-dept-lawsuit-challenges-michigan-cage-free-egg-law\/\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Animal welfare concerns have driven a broader shift toward cage-free production across the country, after years of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.humaneworld.org\/en\/issue\/cage-free-vs-battery-cage-eggs#:~:text=Battery%20cages,switching%20to%20cage-free%20systems.\">advocates<\/a> driving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compassioninfoodbusiness.com\/key-tools-for-success\/eggtrack\/\">consumer awareness<\/a> of cramped conditions for hens in caged systems. Michigan is one of 11 states that ban caged production and one of eight that only allow the sale of cage-free eggs. The USDA <a href=\"https:\/\/mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov\/filerepo\/sites\/default\/files\/3725\/2025-06-27\/1254620\/ams_3725_00082.pdf\">estimates<\/a> close to half of the country\u2019s egg production is now cage free, and some large <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/christinero\/2025\/01\/15\/2025-is-a-critical-year-for-cage-free-meat-and-eggs\/\">companies<\/a> like McDonald\u2019s have switched completely.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2022\/10\/05\/supreme-court-docket-farm-animal-welfare-prop-12-california-gestation-crates-pork-industry\/\">upheld<\/a> California\u2019s animal welfare law\u2014which applies to cage-free eggs and <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2018\/03\/21\/after-a-decade-of-promises-has-the-food-industry-made-progress-on-gestation-crates\/\">crate-free pork<\/a>\u2014in 2023 and <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/06\/30\/supreme-court-weighs-in-on-cases-impacting-roundup-and-prop-12\/\">declined<\/a> to take up another challenge brought by the pork industry last year.<\/p>\n<p>However, a farm bill draft, expected in late February, will likely reignite the fight on Capitol Hill: Republicans in Congress have indicated they\u2019ll try to include <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/05\/06\/opponents-of-prop-12-ask-congress-to-overturn-it-again\/\">a provision<\/a> to overturn the state laws. The pork industry has pushed hard in support of that effort, while a new coalition of independent meat producers is <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/10\/14\/farmers-push-legislators-to-keep-california-animal-welfare-law-on-the-books\/\">lobbying to defend<\/a> the state laws as beneficial for small, family farms. (<a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/food-policy-tracker#trump-doj-sues-michigan-to-overturn-cage-free-egg-law\">Link to this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"ctx-module-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"ctx-article-root\"><!-- --><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2026\/01\/28\/trump-doj-sues-michigan-to-overturn-cage-free-egg-law\/\">Trump DOJ Sues Michigan to Overturn Cage-Free Egg\u00a0Law<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/\">Civil Eats<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 28, 2026 \u2013 The Trump administration is suing Michigan to overturn a law that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorwebsitepublishing.xyz\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}