Court Rules That The Federal Meat Inspection Act Preempts Inconsistent State Law
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The State of California recently enacted a new criminal law, effective January 1, 2009, designed to prevent slaughterhouses from purchasing and processing non-ambulatory animals for human consumption. As enacted, Section 599f amended the California Penal Code to criminalize, without exception, the receipt and use of non-ambulatory animals by slaughter facilities.
In response, the National Meat Association (“NMA”) sought and obtained a preliminary injunction to prevent the State of California from enforcing the new law. NMA, et al. v. Brown et. al, Case No. CV-F-08-1963 (E.D. Cal. 2008). In its briefs, NMA argued that the treatment of non-ambulatory animals was already regulated extensively by the Federal Meat Inspection Act (“FMIA”), which expressly permits, subject to certain requirements, the receipt and use of non-ambulatory animals for slaughter. Under the FMIA (21 U.S.C. § 601, et seq.) and its implementing regulations, non-ambulatory animals may be processed for human consumption if the animals are first inspected for disease and then passed by a federal veterinarian inspector. Because the California law attempted to criminalize what the FMIA permits, NMA argued persuasively that the California initiative was preempted.
Indeed, the FMIA (a distant relative of the 1906 Wholesome Meat Act) regulates virtually every aspect of meat production. The Act requires continuous federal inspection in meat packing plants, often times by multiple inspectors. These federal inspectors are responsible for ensuring that all animals entering slaughter facilities are healthy and free from disease, and that all meat products subsequently produced from such animals are safe, wholesome and not adulterated. Currently, the federal statutory and regulatory scheme is enforced by the Food Safety Inspection Service (a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture).
To ensure that the FMIA and its uniform national requirements are not usurped by the individual states, the FMIA contains an express preemption provision which prevents states from enacting or enforcing any laws that are “different” from the federal standards. 21 U.S.C. § 678. Thus, under the FMIA, any state laws which attempt to penalize a food producer for doing what federal law permits (whether the laws relate to production or product labeling) are strictly preempted.
In this case, the new California criminal law conflicted directly with the federal statutory and regulatory scheme. Because the FMIA permits the use of non-ambulatory animals for slaughter (assuming such animals have been declared to be free from disease by a federal FSIS veterinarian inspector), the Court granted NMA’s request for a preliminary injunction. In its February 19, 2009 Decision, the Court reasoned that the California Penal Code, Section 599f, was both expressly and implicitly preempted under the FMIA and its implementing regulations.
