Compassion Over Killing v. FDA, No. 15-15107 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs submitted rulemaking petitions to the FDA, FTC, AMS, and FSIS, requesting that each agency promulgate regulations that would require all egg cartons to identify the conditions in which the egglaying hens were kept during production. Plaintiffs subsequently filed suit claiming that each agency had acted arbitrarily and capriciously in dismissing their rulemaking petitions. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants. The court concluded that the FSIS did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in denying plaintiffs' rulemaking petition where plaintiffs' proposed labeling regulations concern only shell eggs and thus fall outside of the FSIS's labeling jurisdiction under the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA), 21 U.S.C. 1031–56; the AMS also did not act arbitrarily or capriciously because the agency correctly concluded that it lacks the authority to promulgate mandatory labeling requirements for shell eggs; the FTC did not act arbitrarily or capriciously where the agency could not conclude that the potentially unfair or deceptive labeling practices plaintiffs challenge were "prevalent" as that term was used in the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15 U.S.C. 41-58, and the agency reasonably denied the petition based on its discretion to combat any potentially misleading egg labeling through ad hoc enforcement proceedings; and the FDA's explanation for denying plaintiffs' petition barely met its low burden of demonstrating that it considered the potential problem and providing a reasonable explanation of its decision. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Rulemaking. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of federal agencies in a lawsuit alleging that the agencies acted arbitrarily and capriciously in dismissing plaintiffs’ rulemaking petitions, which requested that each agency promulgate regulations that would require all egg cartons to identify the conditions in which the egg- laying hens were kept during production. The panel held that the Food Safety and Inspection Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in denying plaintiffs’ rulemaking petition because the agency correctly concluded that it lacked authority to promulgate plaintiffs’ proposed labeling regulations for shell eggs. The panel also held that the Agricultural Marketing Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in denying plaintiffs’ rulemaking
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