The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers' pocketbooks.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens.
The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state's outsize role in the national economy.
''It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,'' U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement Thursday. "Thankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.''
Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million birds since early 2022. But prices have come down sharply recently. While the Trump administration claims credit for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer.
''Pointing fingers won't change the fact that it is the President's economic policies that have been destructive," the California Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. "We'll see him in court.''
The average national price for a dozen Grade A eggs declined to $5.12 in April and $4.55 in May after reaching a record $6.23 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the May price was still 68.5% higher than a year earlier.
''Trump's back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything,'' Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said in a social media post.