California's Foie Gras Ban Gets Legal Challenge
LOS ANGELES (CBS / AP) -- A ban on the sale of foie gras that went into effect in California this week is being challenged in court.
A Canadian exporter of the duck liver delicacy, a foie gras producer based in New York state and a Southern California restaurateur filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Monday seeking to invalidate the new law, which prohibits products derived from force-fed birds.
Their lawyers are claiming the ban is vaguely written, so broad that it also applies to skins, feathers and other by-products of ducks raised primarily for foie gras, and violates the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause by affecting companies from outside California.
The California Legislature passed the ban on producing and selling foie gras in 2004, but the law only went into effect on Sunday.
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