Missouri attorney general says he's appealing egg law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling over a California law that prohibits the sale of eggs from chickens that are not raised in accordance with strict space requirements, the Republican told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Hawley said the law will cost Missouri jobs because of increased farming costs, drive up food costs and hurt the state's hospitality and restaurant industries because of pricier food.

"The Supreme Court has been clear that states have the right to protect their citizens against out-of-state regulations that would burden those citizens," Hawley said. "This would burden all Missourians."

The California Attorney General's Office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

At issue is a 2008 ballot initiative approved by California voters that required egg-laying hens in the state to spend most of their day with enough space to allow them to lie down, stand up, turn around and fully extend their limbs. California legislators expanded the law in 2010 to ban the sale of eggs from any hens that were not raised in compliance with the standard.

Missouri and five other states -- Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa -- sued in response. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in November ruled the states failed to show how the law would affect them and not just individual egg farmers.