Foie gras off the menu (again) in California

The SF Chronicle had the story (and I missed it until now...)

California’s foie gras ban upheld, though chefs vow to fight on
Jonathan Kauffman, Jan. 7, 2019

"After six years of legal battles, California’s ban on foie gras is still in effect.

"The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it would not hear a challenge to California’s 2004 ban on the production and sale of foie gras, leaving in place a 2017 ruling upholding it.
...

"The California law, which went into effect in 2004 but delayed enforcement of the ban until 2012, forced California’s only foie gras producer to close. Some California restaurants continued to serve foie gras, however, claiming they were giving it away to guests. Starting in 2012, groups such as the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards, backed by the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller and dozens of other chefs, have supported a series of efforts to overturn the ban, leading to a legal back-and-forth.

"In 2015, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the ban violated the federal Poultry Products Inspections Act,which prohibits states from imposing their own conditions on the sale of poultry. The ruling put foie gras back on Bay Area menus.

"The California state attorney general appealed the ruling, however, and two years later, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed it. However, the court put a stay on the ban so the plaintiffs — two out-of-state foie gras producers and a Los Angeles area restaurant group — could petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.

That challenge is now effectively dead."