Arizona restaurateur sues to stop unlawful egg rule

Phoenix; November 16, 2023: Today, Grant Krueger and Union Hospitality Group filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) to block a proposed rule that would mandate only cage-free eggs be sold in Arizona.

Grant manages a restaurant group that operates several restaurants in Tucson, Arizona. He buys on average 2,167 eggs per week to supply his restaurants and serve his customers. AZDA’s cage-free egg mandate will drive up the overhead on one of his most purchased staple items.

To add insult to injury, the egg rule wasn’t passed by the Arizona Legislature. Rather, it was adopted by AZDA administratively without input from anyone except the egg industry.

“The legislature cannot give regulatory agencies like the Arizona Department of Agriculture the power to make the law,” said Adi Dynar, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “Sweeping policies, like the cage-free egg rule, which substantially increase prices for businesses and consumers, must be made by the people’s representatives, not bureaucrats.”

“I had no seat at the table for any of this,” said Grant. “Unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily impose these kinds of harmful mandates on small business owners like me.”
The Arizona Constitution gives the power to make law only to the legislature. AZDA’s egg rule violates the separation of powers by claiming power that lies only with the people’s representatives.

“The Arizona Constitution is clear: lawmaking is the job of Arizonans’ elected representatives, not unelected regulators,” said John Thorpe, a staff attorney at the Goldwater Institute. “But bureaucrats are trying to go around the lawmaking process to impose a policy that only helps the government’s favored special interests while hurting everyone else.”

The case is Grant Krueger, et al. v. Arizona Dept. of Agriculture, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court. Grant is being represented jointly by Pacific Legal Foundation and the Goldwater Institute.

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